Tag: holocaust

This March 17, Remember the 80th Anniversary of the Escalation of the Slaughter of Jews at Belzec

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March 17, Rick Halperin, director of the SMD Dallas Human Rights Program, for a commentary noting the escalation of World War II slaughters of Jews after the establishment of the Belzec concentration camp in 1942. Published in History News Network under the heading This March 17, Remember the 80th Anniversary of the Escalation of the Slaughter of Jews at Belzec: https://bit.ly/36oljHp 

Thursday, March 17 will be the annual remembrance of St. Patrick’s Day, the Feast of St. Patrick, an observance widely commemorated both in the US and around the globe. The day will be marked with parades, festivals, people wearing green, the display of shamrocks, and, of course, the drinking of much beer and Irish whiskey. A good time will be had by many.

But March 17 is also the remembrance of a tragic anniversary that most people do not know, will not want to remember, and will quickly want to forget upon learning.

On this date in 1942, during WWII and exactly eight weeks after 15 Nazi leaders had met in Wannsee, a suburb of Berlin, and agreed upon the Final Solution (in which all the Jews of Europe were to be murdered), the first permanent death camp at Belzec, in southeast Poland, began operation.

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Putin’s vile bid to erase the Jewish sacrifice in Ukraine

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March 6, Rick Halperin, director of the SMD Dallas Human Rights Program, for a piece criticizing Russia for attempts to erase The Ukriane’s Jewish heritage and sacrifice during war. Published in the Austin American-Statesman under the heading Putin’s vile bid to erase the Jewish sacrifice in Ukraine: https://bit.ly/370FY4x 

Much of the world remains captivated and appalled at the Russian invasion of Ukraine; the unprovoked attack promises to bring much more suffering, tragedy and death to its people, and possibly its president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that he wants to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, a vile and outrageous statement especially given that President Zelensky is Jewish. During World War II, Ukraine was a major area of fighting, death and genocide. Two-and-a-half million soldiers were killed in Ukraine between 1941-1944, and 4.5 million civilians were killed there in the same timeframe. The 7 million deaths constituted almost 11 % of the country’s pre-war population, a figure exceeded only by Poland’s loss of 19.6 % of its population during WWII.

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Reflecting on the 80th Anniversary of the Nazi Invasion of Russia

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July 11, Rick Halperin, director of the SMU Dallas Human Rights Program, for a piece about the Nazi invasion of Russian in 1941 and the longstanding impacts on Germany and modern Russia. Published in History News Network with the heading Reflecting on the 80th Anniversary of the Nazi Invasion of Russia: https://bit.ly/3yL4Gi7

Eighty years ago last month Adolf Hitler unleashed almost 3 million soldiers along a 1,500-mile front, with the intent to utterly and militarily destroy the Soviet Union.  It was the largest assembled army the world had ever seen. The havoc, destruction, and wholesale slaughter of human beings that ensued in the months and years to come would change the paradigm of World War II and alter world history.

Among the death tolls were 2 million Jews and millions of Russian civilians who were murdered. Thousands of towns and villages were destroyed and wiped off the map, art and livestock were plundered and the human psyche scarred forever.

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Holocaust Remembrance 80 Years After the Beginning of Hitler’s Campaign of Genocide

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April 11, Rick Halperin, director of the SMU Dallas Human Rights Program, for a piece remembering the murderous campaign of Hitler and the Nazis in Europe against Jews and others 80 years ago. Published in History News Network: https://bit.ly/2OG4WNU

​We’ve got a lot on our collective plates and minds, coping with a pandemic and the frustrating partisan politics that continue to mire progress.

It would be natural for us at this time to embrace the rites of Spring and avoid the haunting historical memories and anniversaries of the Holocaust that began to occur 80 years ago in Europe, and which continued beyond the end of World War II in 1945.

Even as we are solemnly reminded each April to “Never Forget.”

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Time to Reflect on 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of WWII Concentration Camps

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April 29, Rick Halperin, director of SMU Human Rights Program, for a piece reminding us to reflect on the liberation of World War II concentration camps in Europe 75 years ago. Published in Inside Sources and History News Network: https://bit.ly/2Wd05Uf

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On January 27 this year (2020), much of the world came to a collective pause to remember that on that date 75 years earlier, in 1945, the Soviet army arrived at the gates of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Poland.

The Soviets were seen as the “liberators” of the camp even though they had not planned to do so. Saving the Jews or liberating the camps was never a specific military war aim of any of the Allied nations fighting German forces.

Auschwitz-Birkenau, which had been operating since 1940, had arguably become the epicenter of the Nazi plan of its Final Solution, an effort to rid the world, during World War II, of Jews and other designated groups such as Roma/Sinti, homosexuals and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

It is believed that approximately 1.1 million individuals, including the disabled, women and children, were murdered, many upon arrival, at Auschwitz-Birkenau. . .

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