Monday, May 29, 2006
What about that other guy?Pope Benedict goes to Auschwitz and speaks about the Holocaust: (emp add) "To speak in this place of horror, in this place where unprecedented mass crimes were committed against God and man, is almost impossible — and it is particularly difficult and troubling for a Christian, for a pope from Germany," he said later.
"In a place like this, words fail; in the end, there can be only a dread silence, a silence which itself is a heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?" Those would be good questions for Pope Pius XII, who said absolutely nothing about the Holocaust while it was raging. He didn't even speak out after Rome was liberated in 1944 (giving the lie to the argument that, as long as he was effectively "captive", he couldn't speak out without endangering the papacy). Some questions for the current pope: - Are you going to put the brakes on the move to make Pius XII a saint? (It had progressed to the Venerable stage under Pope John Paul II.)
- Are you going to work to remove the cross at Auschwitz? [Ref 2]
posted by Quiddity at 5/29/2006 05:06:00 AM
4 comments
How about including the question "Are you going to speak up against gay bashing around the world, including that happening as we speak in Poland?"
Or did people mistinterpret god when they though he wanted them to kill all the jews, but they have got the details correct this time when they think he wants them to kill all the gays?
Le pope she is le Nazi. This is not to make laughing. But fortunadamente le zee papa she not matter so much I am hoping else cry.
I'm guessing the Pope only gives a crap because he's got 65 years distance from aspiring to "gas chamber operator" himself.
If he had it all to do over again, he'd be down in the trenches all
over.
You do know that he deserted, right?
History is kind to sitting popes.
The Catholic church loves to sanitize things.
So he didn't desert? He didn't avoid military service from 1938-1943, at which point they were starting to conscript everyone, including in Benedict's case, 16 year old seminarians?
Also, I might note here that Auschwitz I (where the cross is) was not the death camp that most people associate with Auschwitz.
Auschwitz I was a barracks converted into a concentration camp. It was only after the Final Solution had been approved that it became clear that the small crematorium and living quarters were incapable of doing the job.
So they built Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Instead of something that looked like a rather cramped prison, Birkenau was a camp built for death. It looked rather like a feed lot. It was a factory meant to wear people down and get them ready for their deaths.
I'll have to look over my notes, but I think that when Birkenau was built, they moved the Jews there and kept the other political prisoners and undesirables at Auschwitz I.
This is actually a trick used by Holocaust-deniers, confusing Auschwitz I with Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
Also, O?wi?cim should be used for the city in Poland, whereas Auschwitz is the name that the Austrians gave it under occupation. Auschwitz should be used for the three camps (Auschwitz III was a slave labor camp).
I've been there. The worst part is the film that they show you before you enter Auschwitz I, showing Allies looking over the clothing of executed Jews, including a dress that would fit my Jewish niece.
That stops your heart.
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