I look at the picture in the original post, and I cannot help but look back to World War II.
Hitler wanted to create the "perfect" race. He was Hell bent on doing everything in his power to accomplish this task. He killed 6 million Jews, not because of Judaism, but because he believed them to be an inferior race of human. His atrocities were based on his twisted social, political and racial views and had nothing to do with religion.
Your understanding of history is a bit flawed ( no offence meant, most people get this wrong ), and I only chose to point this out because
a) the irony of it being in a thread titled "Never forget"
b) the chilling parallels to modern day Europe
First off, the architect of the holocaust was
Heinrich Himmler not Adolph Hitler. That said, Hitler gave his tacit approval, so this doesn't in any way lesson his culpability or evil rating. It's still well over 9000.
Have you ever heard of the holocaust being called the
Final Solution? Well this expression is rooted in history in the form of the
Jewish Question, which originated in the 18th century. Basically it was believed the the Jewish people would never be an integrated part of a nation. Anti-semites essentially viewed the Jewish people as invaders at worst, foreigners at best, with a cultural belief that is completely incompatible with their own.
Sound chillingly familiar? It should. Basically this is the *exact* view of Islam that is rising in both the US and Europe. If you know nothing of European politics... look in to some of the ultra-nationalist parties and their view towards Islam. If you think this reality is far removed from today, take a look into
Anders Breivik's stated motives for the Norway Massacres.
Jews were not the only persecuted faction either, Gypsies were also targeted and executed on mass, for pretty much the same reason. This behavior is by no means confined to the pages of history, to this day their is a prominant anti-Gypsy/Roma bias in France, where tens of thousands were expelled. Granted, the severity ( explusion vs execution... big difference ) is lower, but then, so is the ultimate motivation.
Germany too was by no means the only nation pondering the "Jewish Problem". In fact, their was heavy support for expatriation of Jewish peoples in both England and France in the years leading up to WW2. Hell, there were
some factions that took a pro-Nazi stance. That Jewish industrialists controlled resources arrayed against the rise of the Nazi party certainly was a factor too.
yeah I'm a courier, and we had a guy with the same problem. His GPS says the drop is on the other side of town? Well go to the other side of town, then, and go slowly too!
