Auschwitz 835


I was involved in the organisation of the 50th anniversary commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz, while First Secretary at the British Embassy in Warsaw. The 50th did not receive anything like the media coverage given to the 70th, of which more later.

Senior British visitors to Poland invariably included a concentration camp on their itinerary, and from escorting people around I visited camps a great deal more often than I would have wished. I found the experience appalling and desolate. The first I ever saw was Majdanek and I recall that I just had to sit helpless and shivering for some time. One thing the experience left me with – including meeting survivors and both Polish and German eye-witnesses, and seeing the architects’ plans for camps – was a contempt for those who claim the whole thing did not happen, or was an accident, or was small scale.

It in no way diminishes the genocidal attack on the Jews to remember that a vast number of Poles also died in the camps, as well as gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled and disparate political prisoners. I tried sometimes to diminish the horror I felt at involvement with the camps, with attempts at humour. I was present at a meeting listing the guests of honour; the President of Lithuania was included. I whispered that he was coming to represent the camp guards. That was offensive, and I apologise. But there is a real problem that to this day Eastern Europe – including Poland itself – has not come to terms with historical truth about collaboration with anti-Jewish genocide and other attacks on minorities. I recommend this website, which tackles these issues very honestly and is well worth a lengthy browse.

It requires bigotry not to be able to understand why nationalist resistance movements against Russian occupation became allied with Germany during World War II. That would be reprehensible only in the same sense that allied collaboration with Stalin might be reprehensible, but for the added factor of enthusiastic collaboration with genocidal and master race programmes and fascist ideology. That is what makes the glorification of Eastern European nationalist figures from this period generally inappropriate.

I fear however that the real reason that the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz received so much more coverage than the 50th is a media desire to reinforce the narrative of the War on Terror and Western policy in the Middle East by invoking the spectre of massive anti-Semitism. There have been isolated but deplorable, apparently anti-Semitic attacks of a small-scale terrorist nature in France and Belgium in recent years. But to conflate this into stories of a wave of popular anti-Semitism in Europe is a nonsense. Maureen Lipman’s claim that she may have to leave the UK is not just silly but disingenuous. I do not believe she feels in personal danger of attack – there is absolutely no reason why she should – she is rather making a political point.

There are two factors which could exacerbate anti-Semitism at present. One is the appalling behaviour of Israel and its indefensible action in continually seizing Palestinian land and using its military superiority to dominate and occasionally massacre Palestinians. Regrettably, there are a very small minority of people who wrongly blame Jews in general for the actions of Israel.

The second factor is of course the terrible economic hardship wrought across the whole world by irresponsible banking practices, and the fact that the bankers luxury lifestyles were maintained at the cost of everybody else. There are still a tiny minority of people stuck in the medieval mindset associating banking with the Jewish community. There is in fact a very plausible argument that if any “race” has a disproportionate influence on the development and character of international banking since the mid eighteenth century, it is the Scots! But those who see banking as a racial issue are nutters.

You could construct an argument from these factors, and you could identify that anti-Semitic people do exist. They certainly do. They dominate the very small category of people who get banned even from this free speech blog. But are their opinions intellectually respectable, promoted in the mainstream or able to be expressed openly without fear of either social or legal consequences? No, no and no. Anti-semites are fortunately a tiny and strange minority. I might add that in my numerous and frequent social contacts in the British Muslim community, I have never encountered anti-Semitism (unlike, say, Poland and Russia where I encountered casual anti-Semitism quite frequently).

The final point, is of course, the conflation of anti-zionism with anti-Semitism. That seems to me the fundamental design of the media campaign exaggerating the scale of anti-Semitism at the moment. Yes, we must always remember the terrible warnings from history and it is right to remember those who died in the concentration camps, Jewish, Polish, Romany, Gay, Communist or any other category. But we should be aware of those who wish to manipulate the powerful emotions of horror thus evoked, for present objectives of the powerful.


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835 thoughts on “Auschwitz

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  • Clark

    Scouse Billy, I’ll repeat my question to you; are there any contrarian theories that you don’t believe? Any you’ve decided are just nonsense? What about Spivey’s false flag bin-wagon?

    Do please give me the credit I’m due for examining evidence. I suspect that I’ve spent far longer looking at things that you’ve posted than you spend trying to debunk your favoured theories. I know I haven’t finished watching that video but I will – I do wish you’d post evidence in written form instead; it’s so much easier to cross-reference and search from and I don’t need to keep fast-forward and rewinding it.

    I start from a mainstream core and work outward. I feel that you hold me in contempt for that when you call me an idiot and an ignoramus.

    Come on Scouse Billy. Please work with me rather than just trying to smash me. I’m not an agent of the establishment, but you seem to dismiss me for applying scepticism to contrarian theories.

  • Scouse Billy

    Try not to get too personal or take things too personally, Clark.

    Anyway sleep well – good night

  • glenn

    Ahh, Clark – you are being played. Anyone referring others to a mass of YouTube videos, is asking you to counter someone else’s assertions. And expecting you to spend a lot of valuable time just viewing the BS before coming back to presenting it. It’s a fool’s errand. The assertion:rebuff ratio of effort has to be in the 1% range.

    Even though you went to the trouble of looking at it, SB hasn’t even done you the courtesy of acknowledging you spent that time.

    No – SB is a “I say, you must believe” type of person. He wants to throw down his wisdom to the grateful masses, not be questioned himself, and provide an endless stream of BS for the bobble-heads to soak up, as he strides through the ranks, monitoring their progress.

    Good thing he’s just a wannabe cult leader, eh?

    *

    Btw, who is that in your picture, SB? You’ve never said (despite being asked). Who is it, and why are you too scared to admit to that militarists’ identity?

  • glenn

    Gah, not “presenting” it (first para), I meant to type “contest”. Anyway – I’ve found another Hot Topic that SB (that redoubtable truth-merchant) has discovered … 5 minutes please.

  • glenn_uk

    [center]
    [h2]Dentists working a Massive Scam[/h2]

    [/center]
    [h4]From our plot-uncovering truth teller,  [i]Soused Billy[/i][/h4]

    Soused Billy, fresh from revealing the fiendish plot that hearing aids are devices to make their users deaf,  has uncovered yet another block-buster of a further, yet more diabolical scam operating in our midst.

    His new research,  discovered by asking himself some questions, has uncovered that a network of operators, with cells very often in even the smallest towns, has had contact with [i]nearly everyone[/i], has access to all levels of society, and perform their “practices” on the most vulnerable, right up to the most powerful.  Old, young, rich, poor – nobody is safe from their powerful grip.

    Despite the documentary “Marathon Man” in 1976, it appears little attention is being paid.   They are able to gas individuals, drill, scrape, plug and even extract body parts (known as “teeth”), and actually radically alter the shape of people’s jawlines,  together with their ability to eat and drink.

    [h4]The rot sets in[/h4]

    Dentists famously provide “fillings”.   But what for?   Soused Billy can reveal that dentists are the cause for all the rot they then remove!

    On each visit, dentists will implant rot, which will work away, causing pain, discomfort and necessitating another visit to get it fixed.   On that visit, the “dentist” will implant yet more rot, starting the cycle all over again!

    The proof is clear – find someone who has never visited a dentist.   Do they have rotten teeth?   Of course not.   Only people who visit dentists get tooth-rot.   The evidence is incontrovertible.

    [h4]Will nobody think of the children?[/h4]

    People – under social pressure – invariably take children to these dentists.   The result?  [u]Every child loses all their teeth[/u].   The fact this gone undiscovered all this time, is testimony to the secrecy surrounding the indoctrination centres known as “dental schools”.

    Children are taught to “brush their teeth” in a ritualistic fashion, using a secret fluid known as “toothpaste”.   Soused Billy, through careful examining of belly-button fluff he extracted, has determined that this is also a chief mechanism of installing tooth-rot.

    [h4]The bite back[/h4]

    Dentist groups immediately ran for cover, as Soused Billy prepared to expose their massive scam.  “I’d give my eye teeth to carry on coining it in!” said one dentist, rushing to empty his safe (filled with gold extracted from earlier fillings), before roaring off in a powerful sports-car (which was itself believed to be proceeds of his scam).

    ———–

  • Scouse Billy

    Cognitive Dissonance driving you crazy, Glenn?

    Much sympathy

    SB

    A “militarist” – bloody hell I should expect 90% of UK males no exactly who my avatar is! If you don’t know you are unworthy 😉

  • ------------¡´`¡.¸¸.¸¸.¡¡.¸¸Node

    glenn 2 Feb, 2015 – 5:38 pm : “@Node: Haul your arse off to the local Scientology outfit. They’ll give you plenty of “information” – but everyone else will only be negative about these cultist dupes. So by your “logic”, they must be correct and more worthy of consideration, right?”

    Sorry for the delayed response – I’ve been racing a midnight deadline to complete a real world task.

    You asked me my position regarding vaccines. I took some time to answer as honestly as I could (2 Feb, 2015 – 3:43 am), but you’ve ignored my answer and put words in my mouth to the effect that my mind is made up against vaccines. Either you don’t believe my answer or you just don’t do shades of grey. In either case, it looks like I’m wasting my time trying to converse with you. Am I?

  • Scouse Billy

    My bad – know” of course – I’m multi-tasking again listening to Rebekah Roth, author of Methodical Illusion.

    http://noliesradio.org/archives/94950

    I’m interested to hear what she has to say (it’s called going to source) not what my “trusted” media outlet reports about her.

    Can you grasp that I am not endorsing her, her book, her interviewer, the channel/site that hosts the mp3, etc.? I am interested plain and simple – if other people are, good for them: I’ve provided a link. You don’t have to click on it.

  • Scouse Billy

    Sorry, Node, messages crossed and I provided a link – you don’t have to take the red pill I mean click the link 😉

    btw if you enjoyed Rupert S. on Joe Rogan, Ep #551 has Graham Hancock on – it’s a blast!

  • ------------¡´`¡.¸¸.¸¸.¡¡.¸¸Node

    er . . . fluoride in water supply. Why?

    . . . . [runs for cover] . . . .

  • Scouse Billy

    LMAO – you hit the nail on the head with certitude and categorical (binary) thinking.

    It’s a fuckin’ madhouse at times…

  • glenn

    Gah, the format screwed up. Oh, for a 5-minute edit button.

    @Node: I haven’t been ignoring you, I either forgot about or did not see your question. Will look back, get to it later.

    Btw, Fluoride? Never mind that, what about this scandal of killer microwave ovens! They give you cancer, programme your brain, and will run off with your girlfriend!

  • Scouse Billy

    Glenn, when you write your “comedy” do you gyrate in your underpants a la Alan Partridge?

    Just wondering – for some reason that bizarre image came to mind as I read your last post.

  • ------------¡´`¡.¸¸.¸¸.¡¡.¸¸Node

    I don’t mind you ignoring me, Glenn. I mind when you misrepresent me.

    I do wonder about the fluoride in tap water issue though. It’s a nice simple issue. I have difficulty accepting the official explanation that it’s for dental health reasons. As a medicine delivery system, its less directed than dropping it on people from a helicopter. And if it really can be justified as a delivery system, why not vitamins, say, rather than such a controversial drug as fluoride?

  • ------------¡´`¡.¸¸.¸¸.¡¡.¸¸Node

    And if you accept that there IS something dodgy about indiscriminately dosing the entire population with controversial chemicals, that opens a pandora’s box of questions about those in charge of our health.

  • ------------¡´`¡.¸¸.¸¸.¡¡.¸¸Node

    Thanks, Billy, I’ll add Ep #551 to my list. Been trying to listen to 2nd half of Sheldrake while writing this, but can’t multitask in that way I’m afraid. Keep having to rewind to catch what I missed.

  • glenn

    @Soused Billy: “Cognitive Dissonance driving you crazy, Glenn?

    No, why on earth should it? What contradictory positions am I attempting to hold in mind (assuming you understand the meaning of the term you used) ?

    You – on the other hand – must have quite some difficulty there. I assume you don’t reject science, medicine and so on entirely. Or do you? Please outline where your acceptance of medicine, and science, begins and ends.

    I was half joking about dental practice – or is that plot too?

  • glenn

    @Node: “I took some time to answer as honestly as I could (2 Feb, 2015 – 3:43 am), but you’ve ignored my answer and put words in my mouth to the effect that my mind is made up against vaccines.

    No I didn’t, I didn’t ignore your answer at all Node. I noted what you had said, and moved on. There wasn’t a question there that I thought was unanswered (which is why I was a little nonplussed at the charge of ignoring you).

    But you did follow up that SB was apparently providing “information” : “One side is supplying information and the other side is offering only negativity.”

    I provided a response to that too. Suggesting that you were ignored is puzzling.

    Was there something I missed?

  • ------------¡´`¡.¸¸.¸¸.¡¡.¸¸Node

    I’d like to discuss water fluoridation specifically rather than general dental practice. But I have to go and get some sleep first.

    Your homework should you choose to accept it, is to offer a justification for fluoridating the water supplies of a tenth of the UK population. I will now self destruct in ten seconds.

  • glenn

    Fluoride in water. Sigh. Looks like we’re working through the whole John Bircher list of conspiracy theories here.

    *

    We are confronted with an endless list of conspiracies. Don’t you know/understand/believe a, b, c and d? Hahaha! Then you don’t know a thing. When asked about (a) we’ll get so far, and then skip onto b, c, and d. There will be others too, but before long it all goes back to (a) again, afresh, for the benefit of newcomers.

    Cult leaders (or wannabies) know that they are never going to convince those that truly challenge them, so the game is to dismiss them with a triumphant air of a conquering champion. Regardless of how the exchange actually went. They forever win, their opponents (such as Clark!) as just stupid know-nothings.

    (Whatever you might think of Clark, he could not be described as ignorant, or stupid, by any honest observer.)

    The Soused Bullys will play a low, mean game. Not surprising, since their personal identify rests on delusions.

    *

    It would be courageous of SB if he were to outline where _legitimate_ medicine begins, and where it ends.

    I would like SB to indicate too, where science properly begins and ends.

    A list of those disciplines of medicine that can be absolutely trusted, and those that are – in SB’s words – trying to kill you would be appreciated.

    I do hope that SB will be able to help us out here, and clarify what science and medicine actually _is_. Because apparently only he knows, not the professionals who work in those fields.

    Without weasling, SB, do tell us. I have a feeling this is a conversation you will do everything to avoid.

  • Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)

    Scouse Billy

    “Glenn, when you write your “comedy” do you gyrate in your underpants a la Alan Partridge?”
    ______________________

    Scouse Billy, you give me the distinct impression that you are someone who does not wear underpants at all – at least, not where they’re usually worn.

    This would explains your frequent leakages, I suppose.

  • Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)

    Node

    “I do wonder about the fluoride in tap water issue though. It’s a nice simple issue. I have difficulty accepting the official explanation that it’s for dental health reasons.”
    ________________

    So what do you think is the real reason, Ganglion?

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    I think the anti-fluoride brigade was dealt with rather well in the film “Dr Strangelove”. Is Node related to General Jack D Ripper? I think we should be told!

  • Clark

    Habbabkuk, I’m disappointed that you’ve chosen to escalate the insults.

    The 38 minutes that I’ve so far watched of the video by David Lim presents convincing evidence that the UK authorities are researching and preparing to seed chemicals into the atmosphere. The official body involved is the Royal Society – an authoritative body, highly influential in the scientific community and with direct links to the country’s power structure.

    On the other side, we have some rather hysterical-sounding Internet gossip-mongers who have been warning us about “chemtrails” – but it seems that they’re not entirely wrong.

    Habbabkuk, you do respect and value democracy and the democratic process, don’t you? I believe you’ve claimed to. Things are changing due to modern communications. Rumours spread and amplify much faster than before. But such rumours tend to have some factual basis. People are losing faith in the traditional media organisations. This is entirely unsurprising after those organisations’ support for the 2003 Iraq war, based as it was entirely upon amplification of false assertions. The same goes for the military action in Libya and the proposed military action in Syria.

    Habbabkuk, would you agree with me that democracy will fail to function correctly if the electorate cannot make proper assessments of the information available to them?

  • KingOfWelshNoir

    Clark & Glenn

    Thanks for responding thoughtfully and non-mockingly to my musings on chemtrails. I think we are essentially on the same page. Most of the websites simply assert things they can’t possibly know, and often claim that contrails never persist, even though you can source on Google image photos from World War II where contrails have clearly lingered a long long time, and spread. I quite often look at the sky in this respect and note every day the same sorts of trails indicative of regularly scheduled flights in the sky above. On some days they dissipate quickly and on others they linger but one can tell from the difference in ‘freshness’ of the day which is which. i.e. it clearly depends on the humidity and other factors. But having said all that, I was originally struck by the sincerity and conviction of many people—often very sensible types, hillwalkers and nature-lovers, folk who do not usually turn up on Alex Jones’ website—that something was wrong with the sky. And, of course, they were not believed. I didn’t buy the daft claims, that the Illuminati were poisoning us all, or that commercial airliners were being unwittingly used to spray this stuff, but I couldn’t completely discount the experiences of these people. Given the ghastly stuff the US military (and no doubt others) are doing in the atmosphere—by their own admission—then it seems quite possible that the dog walkers are spotting something albeit not a plan to annihilate us all. Even, so if the US military are doing even a fraction of the things alleged, covertly and in utter contempt for the planet and it inhabitants, then it is very alarming, and may achieve the same goal of annihilating us all accidentally.

  • KingOfWelshNoir

    Also, I have on rare occasions seen clouds that struck me as seriously weird: odd-shapes, odd patterns, sometimes filled with an alien iridescence as if laced with petroleum, not remotely like a rainbow or something similar. Proves nothing, I know, but they certainly felt wrong.

  • Clark

    KingOfWelshNoir, as is often the case, Wikipedia proves very helpful:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrails

    Astronomer Bob Berman has characterized the chemtrail conspiracy theory as a classic example of failure to apply Occam’s razor, since instead of adopting the long-established “simple solution” that the trails consist of frozen water vapour, “the conspiracy web sites think the phenomenon started only a decade ago and involves an evil scheme in which 40,000 commercial pilots and air traffic controllers are in on the plot to poison their own children”.

    Regarding the “seriously weird” clouds you’ve spotted, I’ve seen “dump and burn” fuel jettison by military jets; sudden flashes of flame in the night sky as I drove down the M11:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_dumping

  • Clark

    I have been contacted by someone who has seen the vaccination debate here, and wishes to submit the following document:

    http://www.killick1.plus.com/uploads/BSEM-2011.pdf

    As best as this anonymous contributor remembers, Andrew Wakefield was deemed to be unethical – he paid kids at a birthday party to give him control samples (of blood possibly). He didn’t claim at the time that the MMR vaccine caused autism – he said further investigation would be appropriate.

    The contributor says that vaccination is not a black-or-white debate, and points out that vaccine recipients may also develop antibodies to other substances that may be present such as egg protein, peanut oil, and latex particles.

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