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Mühltal, May 6^th 2005

Hi Deb,

please apologize my yesterday´s sarcasm, but somehow it is beyond my comprehension how anybody who has visited the museum in Auschwitz, who has seen the barracks in Birkenau, the gas chambers, the crematoria, and to me the most heart-rending sight, the suitcases of Jews deported to Auschwitz for extermination with their names accurately written on these suitcases because they expected getting them back; and the shoes, small ones, large ones, baby shoes; and the hair, kilos of hair, brown hair, blond hair, long hair, and to see that tissue had been made out of this hair ...; I cannot imagine how anyone who has seen this, can possibly not stand at Israel´s side. But in fact, it is possible. Sympathy is with dead Jews, not the living ones.

Or how else would you explain that 68 % of Germans believe that Israel is waging a "war of extermination" against the Palestinians? An attempt at exculpation that makes me shiver.

Because I like Israel. And do you know what kept me up when walking through the death camps seeing all these terrible things? The groups of Israelis or other Israel-loving people walking through these camps wrapped in the Israeli flag, wearing Israel T-shirts or sweat-shirts in blue and white. So whenever I despaired my eyes were searching for these little blue and white dots all over the camp, little dots of hope, symbols of life in an environment of death.

I left Auschwitz the day of the "March of the Living". Some 20.000 people from around the world were going to march the three kilometers from the Auschwitz gate with the inscripton "Arbeit Macht Frei" to Birkenau. I regretted not participating - maybe next year?

Back home I was hoping to get some information about the March on TV. But the news did not report on this "March of the Living" very much. On ZDF "heute" at seven p.m. they said it was the march of young Israelis, although people from all over the world and members of different religions had taken part, no need to mention that this "report" did not even last 30 seconds. As you can see there is not much interest in the "Living".

Sad, but true.

Karin

Warning: Not to be read by people lacking a sense of sarcasm!

Mühltal, May 5^th 2005

Hi Deb,

I have just come back from a study-trip to Cracow and Auschwitz. I went there with a group of politically correct Germans and so I finally found the answer to all my questions:

1. Who is to blame for Auschwitz?
The Americans - because they knew about the Holocaust, but did not immediately stop it.

And, well the British too, a little, because Churchill insisted on Germany´s "unconditional surrender".

2. Is this going to happen again?
No, definitely not – methods are much more refined today. No concentration camps, no death transports to Auschwitz, no, just one or two bombs thrown on Israel and that´s it, five million dead Jews. And if you manage throwing one on New York as well than you will get results the Nazis were only dreaming of. And you will have killed two birds with one stone: Jews and American capitalists. And it is so much more comfortable these days: Germans won´t have to do anything, just sit and wait, exactly what we wanted to do with Saddam. Too bad the Americans put him to prison. So now all our hopes are focused on Iran. That is why we prefer dialogue (= giving dictators time to get nuclear weapons) to action. We knew that Saddam wanted to destroy Israel and we know that Iran is Israel´s ennemy. But we simply did not care and we do not care today.

3. Is sending people to visit Auschwitz a way to fight anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism?
No way. Everybody sees what he wants to see and draws the conclusion he wants to draw. I heard people say that Israel is doing the same to Palestinians. So even Auschwitz is turned against the Jews.

Solidarity with Israel because of Auschwitz? You must be dreaming.

K.

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