27 January 2023

Holocaust Memorial Day

I'm currently watching the Ken Burns series The U.S. and the Holocaust, which is available on BBC iPlayer. It discusses the action that the United States took when faced with the persecution of Jews by the Nazis. Or rather the lack of it.

The immigration quotas were maintained. Jews seeking visas needed $5,000 bonds to cover them, a huge sum of money back then. And antisemitic views were publicly expressed by many influential people, including Senators and preachers with national radio shows. Only FDR really emerges with much credit out of the top people.

I think it's a reminder that evil generally has a lot easier time of it when good people do nothing - or there are other evil people in charge of organisations with the means to help.

The Holocaust was a German crime, but a global failure - and we must make sure actions like that do not happen again.

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