Tag Archives: Holocaust

Holocaust on full display

NUREMBERG, Germany — My friend told me something about the education he received growing up in this country that I feel compelled to share.

While many American politicians seek to avoid teaching our children about all aspects of our country’s history, German children are given the opportunity to tour first-hand one of history’s greatest scourges.

My good pal Martin explained to me that all students are required to take field trips to tour one of the death camps built by the Nazi regime that launched World War II in 1939 and sought to exterminate a race of people.

The Holocaust is on full display in Germany these days, Martin said.

“We have to see it ourselves,” he told me this morning. This is my second trip to Nuremberg; I came here eight years ago with my bride, Kathy Anne and on that 2016 visit, I toured the Documentation Center, the museum built to commemorate the war trials that took place in Nuremberg after WWII.

Martin told me on that first visit that “we aren’t proud of that period in our history, but we do not hide it, either.” He said then that Adolf Hitler’s reign of terror was a “blight” on Germany’s otherwise glorious history.

Today I learned about how German children are taken to one of the sites used by the Nazis to imprison innocent families … and where they were executed!

And to think, thus, that American politicians do not want our children to learn about our own nation’s “blight,” such as, say, our enslavement of human beings.

Absolutely disgusting! We mustn’t hide, either, from the sins committed by our own nation’s leaders.

Good to talk openly of hate

Our nation seems to have commenced an important conversation about hate speech which, as we should understand, necessarily can lead to hateful action.

The latest catalyst for this discussion was ignited in Mar-a-Lago, when two haters showed up for dinner with Donald J. Trump. One of them is the rapper Kanye West; the other is Nick Fuentes, the notorious anti-Semitic denier of the Holocaust and white supremacist.

And so, the conversation has commenced.

President Biden has weighed in, calling on politicians of all stripes to condemn hate speech. Many of them have done as the president has asked. Some of them, tragically, have not. Is this where I can say that the silence is coming from the Republican Party side of the great divide? Well, I just did.

One of the silent types, of course, is the aforementioned Donald Trump. It’s now being reported, by the way, that the most recent GOP POTUS recently sent a letter of support to the family members of the treasonous 1/6 insurrectionists. Oh … but that’s another shameful story for another time.

I want to stick with the hate speech angle.

It is good that we have this talk among ourselves. We need to keep our eyes and ears wide open and understand the consequences of the kind of speech that comes from too many of us. Those consequences too often result in violence; and that violence, also too often, turns deadly. Recent incidents show what happens when madmen vent their hate against Latinos, against gay people, against Black people.

This conversation is worthwhile. It is constructive. May it lead to an awareness that forces us to ban this kind of language from our vocabularies.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Ignorance is no excuse

Donald Trump’s repeated efforts to feign ignorance about notorious and infamous political characters offends anyone with half a noodle in their noggin who knows a blatant lie when they hear it.

Trump is lying once again, I believe with all my soul, when he professes to “not know Nick Fuentes” — the avowed white supremacist, anti-Semite and Holocaust denier.

It reminds me of how Trump claimed to “not know a thing” about David Duke, the nationally known Ku Klux Klan grand dragon who endorsed Trump’s presidential candidacy in 2016.

He lied then, too.

Or when he equated Klansmen and Nazis with counterprotester in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. Remember when he told of “good people, on both sides” of that bloody riot? There are no “good” Klansmen or Nazis — period!

Fuentes broke bread with Trump and Kanye West, the rapper who’s also spoken ill of Jewish people, the other day in Mar-a-Lago, Fla. This latest example of Trump playing only to his racist base of supporters provides without question a hideous example of this individual’s unfitness for public office.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Another whopper from The Donald

So … Donald Trump said that Kanye West brought the moronic anti-Semite, Holocaust denying, white supremacist with him to dinner at Mar-a-Lago.

And that he didn’t even know who Nick Fuentes is.

POTUS No. 45 expects us to believe that.

Quick reminder. Donald Trump has a Secret Service detail with him in Florida; it’s a perk provided former presidents. Does anyone on God’s Good Earth believe the Secret Service didn’t know who was traipsing through the door and that the agents on duty would not have told The Donald that one of ’em happened to be this moron?

As I have said many times, I do not believe a single word that flies out of Trump’s pie hole.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Another ‘big lie’ surfaces

You might remember a fellow the U.S. media dubbed “Baghdad Bob,” the Iraqi disinformation minister who insisted the Iraqis were winning on the battlefield during 1991’s Operation Desert Storm even as we could witness in real time Iraqi armor being destroyed by our tanks and Iraqi soldiers surrendering by the thousands to our troops.

Vladimir Putin has ripped a page from ol’ Baghdad Bob’s book of lies by suggesting that Ukraine posed a legitimate threat to Russia, that Ukraine is being run by neo-Nazis who detest the Russians. Therein lies Putin’s supposed justification for launching an unprovoked war against Ukraine.

Just as Baghdad Bob was proven to be the fool, so will Vladimir Putin be revealed as the liar he is, as there is no Nazi involvement in Ukraine’s government. I shall remind you that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish and whose family members perished during the Nazi Holocaust in the 1940s.

So, for Vladimir Putin to suggest that Zelenskyy is a closet Nazi would be laughable on its face … except that people are dying in what has becoming the largest land war in Europe since World War II. No one should laugh at anything that comes from Vladimir Putin’s mouth.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Whoopi deserves grace

Whoopi Goldberg has stepped in it, which she does on occasion. Her gaffe this time constituted a serious misunderstanding of world history.

So, because of her mistake, ABC-TV has taken her off “The View,” the popular daytime talk show she co-hosts, for two weeks. The network wants her to reflect on what she said on the air this past week.

What did she say? She said the Holocaust was not a race-related crime against humanity. Hmm. Let’s ponder that for a brief moment.

The Holocaust was launched against European Jews because Adolf Hitler said that Jews constituted an “inferior race” of people. Got that? Thus, the genocide resulted in the murder of 6 million Jews before and during World War II.

Goldberg apparently doesn’t see the Holocaust in racial terms. She is an African American woman who sees the issue on the basis of what people with black skin have endured. She called the Holocaust an “evil” act immediately after declaring it wasn’t a racial crime.

I am not going to toss stones at Whoopi Goldberg. I do not want her banned from TV. She has apologized sincerely for the offense others have taken from her statement. I accept her apology. I just hope Jewish Americans do as well.

I see her statement as an utterance that required a lot more nuance and understanding of historical fact about what could be considered human history’s greatest criminal act. Hitler’s own comments tell me he committed a heinous race-based act.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Apology accepted, RFK Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has just learned a lesson that I think should be spread throughout the world as it grapples with the issues of the day.

It is that no one ever should compare whatever discomfort one is enduring in the moment to what occurred during the dark, horrible era of The Holocaust. RFK Jr. uttered a most despicable comparison the other day at an anti-COVID 19 vaccine rally in which he bellowed that people who are forced to be vaccinated against a killer virus are enduring trauma similar to what Anne Frank suffered while she was hiding out in her apartment in Amsterdam during World War II.

Kennedy has apologized for his remarks. I accept his apology. I also hope he — nor any other public figure — makes the same hideous analogy ever again.

Anne Frank died at the age of 15 at the hands of her Nazi captors after she and her family were taken from that apartment and sent to a death camp. She was one of about 6 million European Jews who died during The Holocaust, which was the most unspeakable act committed during the 20th century … or perhaps in all of human history.

Kennedy sought to make some odious comparison between what governments are doing now in ordering vaccines to what the Nazis did to Europeans. Good God in Almighty heaven!

I want to add a personal point of privilege. My wife and I saw the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam in 2016 and were moved to tears at the tale of horror it told of the suffering she and her family endured while they hid from their Nazi captors.

The Holocaust stands alone and should never — not ever! — be held up as something to which one can compare other controversial acts.

Lesson learned, RFK Jr.? I damn sure hope so.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Fauci is no Mengele

Unbelievable.

That’s how I’ll start with this brief post about something I heard on — where else? — Fox News.

Lara Logan, a supposed journalist, compared Dr. Anthony Fauci to the notorious Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele, who during World War II conducted hideous experiments on Jews. Mengele’s aim was to perfect ghastly treatments and he used Jews as experimental patients. Many of those patients died from the experiments.

Logan somehow, in some fashion, conflated the mask and vaccine mandates enacted to fight to COVID-19 pandemic with what Mengele did during the Second World War.

What makes this idiocy even worse is that the Fox News anchors allowed her to continue that trash rant of hers without challenging what in the name of human decency she was alleging.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/12/02/fauci_im_astounded_fox_news_has_not_disciplined_lara_logan_for_comparing_me_to_mengele.html

You can see it on the link I just attached to this post.

Good Almighty God in heaven! What in the world is it going to take to shut down these hate mongers who do nothing but slander and defame the reputations of learned professionals who are trying to help this nation get through a medical crisis?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

No debate on Holocaust

The dust-up that erupted the other day over that North Texas public educator/nitwit who suggested that teachers ought to provide “opposing views” on the Holocaust has brought to mind this thought: Just who out there actually espouses any doubt over what occurred during World War II?

I know the answer: It’s the right-wing crackpot wing of the great divide.

Gina Peddy is a director of curriculum for the Carroll Independent School District. She was overheard telling teachers that they need to provide instruction that includes those who might question whether the Holocaust actually happened.

Well … it did. It happened. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi henchmen sought to eliminate Jews from Europe. They killed as many as 7 million Jews during World War II.

There is no legitimate “opposing view” to the historical fact of what occurred.

Peddy’s employers at Carroll ISD were quick to disavow what was overheard in that teachers’ meeting. I don’t know what they’re going to do about Peddy and whether she should stay employed by the district. That is their call; my own view is that she needs to go.

As for any serious denial of what transpired at Hitler’s grimy hands, there isn’t any to be discussed.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Rep. Greene comes clean

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Given that I have spent a good bit of emotional capital — not to mention filled a fair amount of cyberspace with commentary on this congresswoman — fairness dictates that I offer a good word when she seeks to atone for her loud and brash mouth.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon queen of the House, popped off not long ago comparing mask-wearing mandates to what Jews suffered during the Holocaust.

Rep. Greene toured the Holocaust Museum in Washington and then this week issued what looks to me to be a sincere apology for what she said.

“I’m truly sorry for offending people with remarks about the Holocaust,” Taylor Greene told reporters outside the Capitol on Monday. “There’s no comparison and there never ever will be.“

To be clear, this apology did not contain that non-apologetic cliche “If I offended anyone … “ This sounds to me like the real deal.

This is a good thing from this otherwise reckless ultra-right winger who’s been known to say some patently outrageous things.

Will this signal a new turn for the Georgia congresswoman? Has she found some form of religion that will enable her to retain a semblance of decorum and dignity in her public pronouncements? Time will tell if it lasts.

I just feel the need to express my own appreciation that on this matter, she had the good sense to own her mistake and seek to atone for it.