Remembering the Holocaust - A Gallery

I will never forget the first time I saw images from the Holocaust. I will never forget the feelings I felt, and the everything about that moment, and what I learned. It was truly horrifying, in every way. Believe it or not, I guess it never had really been spelled out to me quite like it was in high school.

It was a day like any other day really. It was with my favorite teacher as well, a social studies teacher. He was rather somber, then showed us the movie. The degree of what I saw, couldn't be true. Yet it was.

My family was not one to discuss wars, much less one including the Holocaust. I think for many people it is just too awful an atrocity. Over time, I think it is very important we never forget those initial feelings any of us must have felt. We felt what we did because that is as it should be with something so awful.

Now we have Holocaust Remembrance days and weeks. We even have them internationally. We are approaching a time where more and more of the survivors are passing away. At the same time, we are entering a new era where some would even dare to suggest the Holocaust didn't even happen! We are encountering a time where truth must be stood up for, and we also need to fight hard against revisionist history.

In an effort to help to never regret, sharing photos that were taken during these awful events can help us to remember like nothing else. This is not for the faint of heart to look at, but we can never forget how distorted some people's thinking became, how much hatred of others can actually accomplish if left unchecked.

If nothing else, let these images help us never to forget people who died because of racial hatred. They didn't deserve to die for just being who they were. I think they would want us to remember them, and for us to do our best to never allow it to happen to anyone ever again.

The scariest part is that it really wasn't that long ago. It is not ancient history. Now that more and more time has passed, let us remember these lives. It could have been any of us, as we don't choose when or where we are born, or to whom. Let us live and let live, if not learn to love each other more.

There are many images shown here, some are going to be in small thumbnails. Make sure to see all the images that you want to view by clicking on these small thumbnails to make them larger. Or, there is a slide show option where you can click through the images. I have done my best to share the little I know about each image. They are all in the public domain. I think that is a good thing, so all can easily research and see what happened. So much was lost, that it is a good thing we have at least the images. If we didn't, over time, some might wonder if such an awful thing was just made up.

Thank you to all that take the time to remember these folks that were just wanting to live out their own lives like you and I want to do. Thank you to those that helped to free these people that to those that gave their own lives in doing so. There is one image of some youth that are blindfolded and about to be executed. There is a story of courage to be found here and there. One German officer refused to take part in the murder of these youth. He was forced to be shot with them. To all that took a stand to stop it before, and during and up until the end, thank you. Anyone can be an evil coward, it takes an incredibly strong person to stand up for what is right, especially when scared and all alone.

Imagine if that one German soldier were to inspire some others around him and a few others of the soldiers also stopped in the execution. They could have let those youth run free. Let us all not ever be so overcome with evil, or bad ideas and hatred or fear, that we don't stand up for what is right.

Of all the centuries that have passed, let us never allow such a bloody century as the 20th century was for this planet. Never before has there been such death and destruction at the hands of other human beings. Let it never happen again. To all that died, we remember you as much as we are able to. To all the heroes that fought one way or another at some time or another during that war, thank you. You are true heroes.

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