Sadly, there is paperwork, mountains of it, to prove that the Holocaust did happen: millions of people died either from active intervention or neglect and hardship, and the Nazis kept files on everything. There were also political activists, Roma, criminals and priests amongst their victims, and my grand-father who had delirium tremens,and whom my desparate aunt had given up to an institution to look after. The Nazis condemned everything that was not seen as racially positive, according to their creed. He is also memorialised.
I grew up in post-war Austria and as an 11-year old I returned home from school one day deep in shock, because I had realised what happened to the Jewish people of my country. I had seen posters in the streets showing the concentration camps. I could not believe it. I asked questions, I accused everybody, including my parents, whereupon my Mum broke down in tears saying nobody knew etc. etc.
It became an obsession with me to find out. I, then for two years read a series on the K.Z.s in the "Spiegel" until I could stomach it no longer. I still watch documentaries when they're shown, mostly on SBS (always synchronised with certain world events, I've found - sigh!).
I have also found that some Jews survived in the middle of the German and Austrian people, and probabl other countries too. My first boyfriend and his Mum having had such a fate. The price he paid was that his Mum never told him he was Jewish, he has only recently found out, now that he's pushing 70. He tells the best Jewish jokes, and is also pretty upset with Israel - we telephone regularly.
Another lady I know, now very old, was the illegitimate daughter of a famous Jewish Viennese industrialist family. She was 'farmed out' to a Tyrolean family, became a peasant girl, learnt to yodel, had 'Aryan' good looks, and entertained the Nazi Officers with her singing. Eventually her foster parents smuggled her out of the country.
Yes, our media probably gets tweaked in certain directions, but if you are really interested, you can always vary your news input and eventually you'll always find the true story.
Yes, the Jewish people of Europe suffered, but the Germans have paid a heavy price as well. Apart from being the bad boy of Europe forever, they've paid years of compensation to victims of the Holocaust. Do you think they would have done this without proper documentation? If you know German buerocracy, you know it's all about filling in endless forms and providing proof 10 times over.
Yet I fear the kind of multiple pushing and shoving that's going on at the moment over Iran; especially when it comes to nuclear bombs. The wind is going to blow their evil legacy our way as well.
All I can say, read everything, question everything, and speak out and demonstrate when necessary, and use your precious voting power.
