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Auschwitz Museum Releases Software To Rewrite Holocaust Nomenclature (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum has released software for Windows and Mac which is intended to catch and rewrite terms such as 'Polish death camps' and other phrases which associate the Polish people with the atrocities of the holocaust, rather than the occupying German forces which created and ran the death camps. The software comes in the form of Microsoft Word Add-Ins on Windows and a revision to the system-wide dictionary in OSX, making the facility available to Mac programs including Safari, Keynote and Outlook. A spokesperson for the ad agency that developed the programs said, "We decided to make use of the primary tool used by text writers and create an easy to install add-on that finds the mistake made and suggests a correct phrase."

228 comments

  1. Re:What's holocaust? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    My grandparents died in the Holocaust when they were six. Show some respect.

  2. Revisionist history? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nothing to see here, move along.

    1. Re:Revisionist history? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Revisionist history

      ALL history is revisionist. New documents are found. New sites are uncovered by archaeologists, farmers and earthquakes. And data science.

      See, a HUGE help has been document scanners and data science. Many of the church records in England have been digitized and the historians have been using that data - along with computer science - to discover new things about it's history.

      And as things are discovered in other areas, history is reinterpreted. To be a good historian, one must be familiar with computer science, biology, geology, mathematics, statistics, chemistry, economics, literature and just about every aspect of human thought.

    2. Re: Revisionist history? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      From the example given in the article, it sounds more like "clarification" than "revision".

    3. Re:Revisionist history? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's what they said the first time!

    4. Re:Revisionist history? by AK+Marc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not revisionist history. It's trying to change the descriptors of events. Camps in Poland were German camps, not Polish. The Poles weren't collaborators, but were subjugated. The Poles seem very concerned about the "true" history being lost, and the poor descriptions of events giving a false impression.

      Much like the secession states in the US Civil War seceded because of slavery as the primary reason, and hate of states rights as the second, though the current thought is the opposite of the second, and that the primary is a secondary or lower cause. One must be vigilant about how words are used if meaning is to be maintained over long terms.

    5. Re:Revisionist history? by x0ra · · Score: 1

      Revisionism comes into play when a government try to enforce history by law.

    6. Re:Revisionist history? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It seems like the purpose of this is to be surreptitiously installed on someone like David Irving's PC as a practical joke. People who install this sort of thing voluntarily are unlikely to need the correction.

    7. Re:Revisionist history? by davester666 · · Score: 1

      These are not the Polish collaborators you are looking for.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    8. Re:Revisionist history? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well since this doesn't appear to be a government doing it, it's ok than, right?

    9. Re:Revisionist history? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Poles murdered many more Jews than the history books report. See Jan Gross' work as a prime example of the research still being done and the insane backlash from the Polish Gov't: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighbors:_The_Destruction_of_the_Jewish_Community_in_Jedwabne,_Poland, http://www.thenews.pl/1/11/Artykul/240924,Rumpus-over-threat-to-deprive-historian-Jan-Gross-of-Polish-honour

  3. Related to recent government measures by vivaoporto · · Score: 4, Informative

    Probably related to the recent measures proposed by the Polish government to criminalize the use of the phrase âoePolish death campsâ.

    1. Re:Related to recent government measures by JustNiz · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Spot the irony here? The Polish government are using the law to supress/enforce what they want the people to think... which is a move directly from the Nazis own playbook.

      I find it VERY concerning when software tools and even laws are made with the intention of preventing certain language from ever being written. Its clearly a win for "political correctthink" rather than actually free speech.

    2. Re:Related to recent government measures by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's a move from a LOT of playbooks going back through history -- think blasphemy and lese majeste laws. Historically, I'm pretty sure it's much more common than free-speech laws.

    3. Re:Related to recent government measures by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's a lot of precedent for these types of laws. Just search "holocaust denial laws". One man's free speech is another man's hate speech and vice versa.

    4. Re:Related to recent government measures by KiloByte · · Score: 1, Interesting

      They forgot the little detail that most death camps were reopened shortly after the war, operated for years by the Polish government (Soviet puppets but still).

      This excludes Auschwitz which was left as a widely-touted museum to show the world how bad the Nazis were, while the other camps were not spoken of, sometimes with all their traces actively purged.

      And yeah, I'm a Polack.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    5. Re:Related to recent government measures by Megol · · Score: 1

      So you are an idiot, do you really think your opinion matters?

    6. Re:Related to recent government measures by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      Whatever I am or not, at least I'm not a childish dick like you.

    7. Re:Related to recent government measures by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What words were illegal in Germany back then? For the general public I mean, not for the media which follows (unspoken) rules anywhere.

    8. Re:Related to recent government measures by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Informative

      Okay, it pays to RTFA before getting upset about it. Turns out the proposal to criminalise use of this phrase is just something some guy in the government said he wants, not an actual policy and certainly not likely to become law. So forget that, it's just a click bait story built on a foundation of bullshit.

      The software is a tool to help people. Like a spell checker, people like tools that improve their writing. It's optional, no one is being forced to use it. Similar tools have existed for years, like grammar checkers that suggest avoiding gendered pronouns in technical writing and on forms etc. It's not attempting to censor or silence anyone, or force anyone to do anything.

      It's an interesting tool but basically a non-story.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    9. Re:Related to recent government measures by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's what happens when your country is in the grinder like Poland was. You see the best and worst come out, generally in the form of people desperate to avoid being crushed under the heel (either by trying to beat or join them). I can't imagine that they would have done so if Poland was left to their own devices, though.

    10. Re:Related to recent government measures by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      actually, the death count in the post-war Polish deathcamps for Germans came near to the percentages of Auschwitz

      This is total bullshit. Give your sources.

    11. Re:Related to recent government measures by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What is needed more than mere criminalization is to burn all the books and start fresh. The Polish army could confiscate all the Polish-Germans' firearms first to prevent terrorist anti-book-burning activities.
       
      It's the only way to really show those Nazi fucks how it's done.

    12. Re:Related to recent government measures by vux984 · · Score: 2

      I do so love a post that effectively contradicts itself merely by the fact it was made in the first place. Very meta. Bravo.

      As for the argument at hand, more irony... some politico says "I wish people would stop calling them 'Polish Death Camps' when the Polish people had nothing to do with creating them or running them; there ought to be a law!"

      To which your response is that "He shouldn't be allowed to have that opinion, you know, to protect freedom of speech."

      Your head a splode!
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    13. Re:Related to recent government measures by nbauman · · Score: 1

      Probably related to the recent measures proposed by the Polish government to criminalize the use of the phrase "Polish death camps".

      Finally somebody has the explanation.

    14. Re:Related to recent government measures by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you stupid or just being a troll...they are not Polish deathcamps, they are in Poland, they aren't suppressing the truth just correcting the language. Read a fuken book

    15. Re:Related to recent government measures by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I do not know the exact numbers and nobody does BUT it's not remiss to point out that quite a few POWs died at the hands of the USSR. The numbers for that vary quite a bit but you can see the general thoughts on that particular subject by clicking this:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    16. Re:Related to recent government measures by KGIII · · Score: 1

      That's not really accurate. I forget the official's name but it was one lone government official (elected - probably not going to be in office after the upcoming elections) said that it should be against the law. As far as I know, it was never proposed as a law, never voted on, and mostly just pissed people off.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    17. Re:Related to recent government measures by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is a subtle difference between:

      A: I wish people would not refer to them as polish death camps
      B: You are not allowed to have that opinion!

      and

      A: You are no longer allowed to refer to them as polish death camps
      B: Your new law is ironic considering the context

      Your conflating the two is either being obtuse or willfully misrepresenting his argument in order to win. We call that a strawman.

    18. Re:Related to recent government measures by paai · · Score: 0

      http://historiek.net/oorlog-ging-gruwelijk-door-na-1945/43768/#.VsWPailc000

      In dutch, I am afraid, but google translate may give you enough pointers to start your own research. Or read "the 25th hour" by Virgil Gheorghiu. When Churchill coined the phrase "the iron curtain" it was exacty this what he meant. But probably you will prefer to ignore this side of history.

      Paai

  4. Nazis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I'm of German decent - great grand parents came over in late 19th century - and my family had nothing to do with it. As a matter of fact, my family that styed behind were accused of being German "Trolls" according to the Nazis (couldn't say anything against them or the SA was on your ass), put my ancestors back in the "homeland" into concentration camps. Yeah, they helped Jews, Catholics, etc... and disagreed with the Nazis.

    1. Re:Nazis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still does not refute the fact that those camps were devised, build, maintained and operated by (mainly) Nazis.

    2. Re:Nazis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course they were. However, the point is that one shouldn't confuse Germans with Nazis. The majority of Germans were not Nazis and many Nazis where not German.

    3. Re:Nazis by Megol · · Score: 1

      The majority of national socialists were German. The whole idea behind nazism was the idea of the purity of German blood, the country was known as the national socialistic Germany at the time.

      Facts doesn't change because people are bothered by them.

    4. Re:Nazis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait. You're saying that the majority of a German political party was made of of people from Germany?! Whoa! /s

      Of course, nothing in what you said is wrong, but nothing in what you said actually contradicts the post you replied to, which pointed out *correctly* that only a minority of Germans were Nazis. (A disturbingly small minority, when you look at the magnitude death and destruction they were able to cause.)

  5. Republicans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ted Nugent doesn't care whether it's the Krauts or the Pollacks.

    1. Re:Republicans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ted Nugent doesn't care whether it's the Krauts or the Pollacks.

      You're foolish to draw conclusions from some abstract expression.

  6. just apologize by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's a little disingenuous to blame Germany for it, because Polish mobs were killing the survivors from Auschwitz. The Jews didn't leave Poland because of the concentration camps, they left because Poland was trying to kill them.

    Poland should just apologize and move on. We all have done terrible things in the histories of our countries. No point trying to hide it.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:just apologize by halivar · · Score: 1

      You have to factor in the fact that centuries of calculated ethnic cleansing had left large swaths of Poland as ethnically German, especially in the north, and it was these people who were the lion's share of Nazi sympathizers in the country. The Poles purged the Germans after WWII (itself a controversial act, but I digress); how much should they still have to answer for acts committed by former Poles of German descent, who were then exiled back to Germany?

    2. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      True, but it's more disingenuous to equate that incident with the likes of Auschwitz, which is the implication your words are making. Especially since Poland was under Germany's heel at the time. Nor does this change the fact that the death camps were Nazi institutions, not Polish ones, even if some Polish people may have been as rotten to the core as their oppressors. It's not right to treat this with a ho-hum relativist viewpoint. It's treating both atrocities in an insipid manner.

    3. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is a lie. Fewer Poles collaborated with the Nazi Germans than in all other conquered territories:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Poland

    4. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is not true. Poles collaborated with Nazi Germans less than those in all other conquered territories:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Poland

    5. Re:just apologize by phantomfive · · Score: 1, Interesting

      In the US, we had concentration camps for Japanese, and they weren't nearly as bad as the death camps in Poland.

      I feel really bad about the concentration camps for the Japanese, even though I had nothing to do with them other than living in the same country 50 years later. If a Japanese person asks me, I will happily apologize. The concentration camps were a lousy thing to do, we shouldn't have done them.

      Same with the drop of the nuclear weapons. Even if you think it was better than the alternative, you can still say, "I'm sorry we did that, I wish it hadn't happened."

      Sometimes you just need to accept that things sucked back then and move on (ie, don't do it again).

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    6. Re:just apologize by phantomfive · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's not a lie, Polish mobs were literally killing survivors of the concentration camps. See this for more detail.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    7. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Difference here though. The camps in the US were built by the US. The camps in Poland weren't built by the Polish. Well, technically not true, it was Polish labor that constructed them. But mostly at gun point. And then the Poles were the first to be imprisoned in them. Many were also executed in them. See the difference between the Japanese camps and the ones in Poland. I refuse to call them Polish as the only thing Polish about them was their location.

      Full disclosure, I'm of mostly Polish ancestry. Roughly half Polish and half Polish Jew.

    8. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even better; condition your apology on them first apologizing for the rape of Nanking. But do your research first, because once you get into apologizing for your ancestors (understanding that we've mangled the meaning of ancestor into "shares the same skin color"), you are going to be at it all night, and all day, and several weeks forward.

    9. Re:just apologize by phantomfive · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's a quantitative difference, not a qualitative difference. The Poles were really, really bad to the Jews. You can say the Poles weren't as bad as the Nazis, and that's true, but......

      Just apologize and move on. Really, it's easier.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    10. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...because the murder of 42 jews in Kielce is just as bad as the murder of 1.1 million people in Auschwitz? Yes, in wartime, people on both sides do evil things, but blaming Poland for the holocaust is just plain ridiculous.

    11. Re:just apologize by Megol · · Score: 0

      Nope. The Germans actually stopped some massacres of Jewish Poles executed by (non-nazi sympathizing civilian) Poles. It is documented.

    12. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, you make a comparison between the US camps and the Polish camps, I show why you're comparison is devoid of all thought and you come back with the BS defense "It's a quantitative difference, not a qualitative difference" whatever the hell that's supposed to mean and then change the subject.

      And also, so as a half Jew I should apologize for what exactly? Should the Polish part of me apologize to the Jew part of me? Can I get a full list of your ancestry so I can come up with a full and complete list of folks you need to apologize to if we're playing the game apologize for things we didn't do but might be distantly related to people who did?

      No, I've met people like you. Many many times. I must first ask, are you English, because the behavior your showing I've seen most commonly with the English. I swear, it's like, you want to be racist, but it's not socially acceptable, but since the Poles are white, it's socially acceptable, so you let those tendencies rip. Face it, by your own statement, this is about death camps, and under no sane reading of history are the Poles at fault on any of that beyond the level of sympathizers which you found in every country at the time.

    13. Re:just apologize by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Informative

      Sometimes you just need to accept that things sucked back then and move on (ie, don't do it again).

      Unfortunately, it does not appear that Poland learned its lesson, as we see by the rise of the authoritarian far-Right in Poland PiS party and the Nazi-like National Rebirth of Poland (Narodowe Odrodzenie Polski) Party. It is no accident that the criminalization of the phrase "Polish death camps" has come at this time. It's because there is a concerted effort in Poland to erase these camps from history.

      https://www.thejournal.ie/pola...

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    14. Re:just apologize by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      And also, so as a half Jew I should apologize for what exactly?

      Apologize for killing Christ. :)

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    15. Re:just apologize by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Yeah. If I had grown up in Israel, right now I would be saying something like, "Yeap, grandpa made the right decision leaving Poland."

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    16. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is where things get fun. I'm ethnically half Jewish, but my grandparents left the Jewish faith and became Catholic. And I stand by, if spending 20 years sitting through the Easter vigil isn't enough of a penance for killing Christ, then I don't know what is :)

    17. Re:just apologize by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      mobs don't collaborate or not collaborate

    18. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      It's a little disingenuous to blame Germany for it, because Polish mobs were killing the survivors from Auschwitz.

      Yeah, it's totally disingenous to blame a country for carefully planned genocide that was sytematically executed as a part of that country's government's politics, as long as another country, one that happened to be occupied by the first one, had mobs of violent villagers. NOT.

      The Jews didn't leave Poland because of the concentration camps, they left because Poland was trying to kill them.

      The reason Holocaust took place mainly in Poland is that Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. And the reason for that was that historically Poland had been literally *the* most tolerant country in Europe (first one to have statutory religious tolerance for Jewish communities and one that accepted Jews expelled from all over the continent). By the time war started, Jews were large and well intergrated part of Polish society. Does that mean there was no anti-semitism? Of course there was. There were also collaborators, opportunists, looters and all kind of scum, including mobs of villagers doing some disgusting things to their Jewish neighbors. That's a part of history Poland still had not completely settled with, but implying "trying to kill Jews" was some kind of Polish state's official agenda in an attempt to dilute Germans' responsibility for the Holocaust is a primitive manipulation. Also, what everyone seems to forget about, there was also a lot of Poles (not just Polish citizens of Jewish or Roma descent, but actual, "ethnic" Poles) that were killed in Nazi camps.

      No, I'm not a Pole, but I certainly understand why they get pissed.

    19. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Please mind your words. As a Polish person with Jewish roots, whose close family members were killed by the Nazis in Auschwitz, I say: apparently, you are misinformed.

      Irrespective of the polish antisemits from the times of before the war, of peasants murdering Jewish people (which totally happened), of people parasitising on Jews escaping the ghettos, death camps like Auschwitz were made by the Nazis. Polish were killed in Auschwitz as well as Polish of Jewish origin or Jewish people from other countries. These were German death camps. Polish in general and Polish individuals were never involved in that.

      At that time, the underground Polish army had a specialized unit, Zegota (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BBegota) for aiding Jewish people. Polish soldiers such as Witold Pilecki [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki] actually actively got themselves captured in order to witness and report on the Nazi crimes in the German death camps. Others, such as Jan Karski, tried to inform the Western powers (in especially, USA), but their reports were not believed [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Karski#Reporting_Nazi_atrocities_to_the_Western_Allies].

      Thus, implying that Polish had a hand in the concentration camps, implying -- like you did -- that Polish have to *apologize* for them is extremely offensive.

    20. Re:just apologize by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Informative

      Poland had been literally *the* most tolerant country in Europe

      OK, I'm going to assume you're sincere here, and not trolling. This is what tolerance looks like. This is what tolerance doesn't look like. The reality is Hitler didn't invent anti-semitism, he tapped into the existing strong current of anti-semitism and took advantage of it for his own purposes.

      By the time war started, Jews were large and well intergrated part of Polish society.

      Again, I don't know why you think that.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    21. Re:just apologize by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Thus, implying that Polish had a hand in the concentration camps, implying -- like you did -- that Polish have to *apologize* for them is extremely offensive.

      Would you prefer I say, "they should apologize for massacring the Jews." Would that somehow make it better?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    22. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you for real? Saving almost all 8000 Jews in Denmark was a truly heroic feat which deserves lauding, but compare their situation to Poland's and it's a drop in the bucket. For instance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_of_Jews_by_Poles_during_the_Holocaust

      Or do you seriously think that Poland under Nazi occupation was the same as Denmark under Nazi occupation? Last I checked, Slavs weren't much favored by Hitler compared to Jews, so they had good reasons to be afraid. But ignoring what Polish people did for the Jews to present this skewed narrative is just insane.

    23. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's a quantitative difference, not a qualitative difference. The Poles were really, really bad to the Jews. You can say the Poles weren't as bad as the Nazis, and that's true, but......
       

      The cases where Polish people harm Jews were rare. At the same time "the citizens of Poland have the world's highest count of individuals who have been recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations for saving Jews from extermination during the Holocaust in World War II." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Righteous_Among_the_Nations).

    24. Re:just apologize by nbauman · · Score: 2

      My reading of the history http://www.abebooks.com/Notes-... of the time is that it's difficult to separate categories of people like "Jews," "Poles," "Germans," or even "Nazis" as all good or all bad.

      It seems that like most nationalities at the time, a minority of Poles helped the Jews, a minority of Poles killed the Jews, and the majority in the middle went where they were led. A lot of them formed alliances of convenience, with the Soviets or Polish nationalists, and a lot of them collaborated with the Nazis, based on cold calculations of what gave them the best chances of surviving the war.

      Ringelblum said that the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto hated the collaborators, Kohn and Heller, even more than the Germans.

      There was definitely a history of anti-Semitism and pogroms in Poland. There were also periods of uneasy tolerance and even acceptance. During the good times, the Polish Jews were quite successful.

      Even after WWII, there were some Jews who were quite influential in Polish society, like Marek Edelman and Helena WoliÅska-Brus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.... So tell me whether those Polish Jews themselves who survived the war were all good or all bad.

      I used to try to figure out which nations were good and which were bad. Now I realize that it's a complicated mixture, and I think that's a more satisfying answer.

    25. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Poland had been literally *the* most tolerant country in Europe

      OK, I'm going to assume you're sincere here, and not trolling.

      It's not a matter of sincerity or lack of it, it's a matter of historic facts. Poland had been a shelter for Jews exiled from pretty much all other European countries and has had laws granting them religious and social autonomy since around 1300's. Now, if you choose to interpret "the most tolerant" as "100% antisemitism-free over the centuries" in order to set up a strawman (even though I explicitly admitted there was antisemitism), that *is* a matter your of insincerity. Perhaps I should've written: "the least antisemitic".

      By the time war started, Jews were large and well intergrated part of Polish society.

      Again, I don't know why you think that.

      You don't know why I think it was large? Because I consider 10% (over 30% in largest cities like Warsaw or Lviv) a lot. You don't know I think it was well integrated? Because Jews were important part of economic, social, scientific, cultural and artistic (including literature/poetry written in Polish, which I consider the ultimate indicator of damn good integration/assimilation) life of Poland.

      This time try not to interpret my words as "all Poles loved all Jews all the time" in order to bravely disprove them with a bunch of links again, m'kay?

    26. Re:just apologize by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      I used to try to figure out which nations were good and which were bad. Now I realize that it's a complicated mixture, and I think that's a more satisfying answer.

      Well said.. Each person makes their own choices, some good and some bad.
      That's why it's best to just apologize and not do it again in the future.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    27. Re:just apologize by nbauman · · Score: 1

      And also, so as a half Jew I should apologize for what exactly? Should the Polish part of me apologize to the Jew part of me?

      Your parents should be praised for their efforts at Jewish-Polish reconciliation.

    28. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to mentioned in Poland, unlike Denmark or any other Nazi-occupied country for that matter, helping a Jew was punished by death. And yet, there are 6620 Poles awarded the Yad Vashem's "Righteous Among the Nations" and only 22 Danes.

    29. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It has nothing to do with apologies. It has to do with the Jews trying to extort $65B from Poland.

    30. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The wikipedia article needs to be clearer on whether they were communists who aided the Soviet invasion of September 1939.

    31. Re:just apologize by nbauman · · Score: 1

      Just one more thing. Science magazine had a special issue on human conflict.
      http://www.sciencemag.org/site...

      tldr: they reviewed everything science had to say about human conflict -- anthropology, evolutionary biology, psychology, etc. They came to 2 conclusions:

      1. Throughout all of human evolution, groups of people have had conflicts with other groups, and even extermination.

      2. Throughout all of human evolution, humans have followed conflict with reconciliation. Their prime example was South Africa.

    32. Re:just apologize by nbauman · · Score: 1

      The cases where Polish people harm Jews were rare.

      Much as I would like to believe that, because I grew up with a lot of Polish friends, it doesn't seem to be true. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      My response is, let the historians figure out what happened, when they do let's face the truth, and move on to forgiveness and reconciliation. http://forward.com/news/world/...

    33. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, this is exactly the kind of BS that might lead some people to make software to try to remind the world that they weren't the ones who wanted death camps on their soil. The Jews didn't leave Poland because Polish people were killing them. They left because Poland was a Nazi-occupied hellhole were protecting a Jew would get you and your family slaughtered alongside them. Good lord do people ever seem to want to forget how many Polish people risked (and gave) their lives to try to smuggle people out of their own country. The rest of the world sat back and let them be invaded, and now we're demanding that they apologize for not being inhuman saints?

    34. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Poland" didn't slaughter the Jews. Some of them aided in the slaughter, others fought against it, and still more were too terrified to do anything at all. So stop trying to paint this as something "Poland" should apologize for. On the balance they did a lot more to save the Jews than the rest of the world did at the time, when they just let Poland be invaded by Nazi Germany, and then later let them be taken over by the Soviets. The Nazis and Soviets were by far more responsible for what actually happened in Poland compared to its own people. There is nothing wrong with Poland wanting people to remember that, especially since even people on Slashdot seem to have a relativist pole shoved up their ass so much that they're dwelling on everything bad Poland did while they were being crushed under jackboots.

    35. Re:just apologize by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 1

      It's not a lie, Polish mobs were literally killing survivors of the concentration camps.

      Yes, you are correct. And these acts of violence are deplorable.

      Just to try to get a sense of the magnitude, from your link: "Jews constituted between 2% and 3% of the total number of victims of postwar violence in the country," and that number seems to come to 1000-2000 victims, according to your link.

      According to this, at the post-war peak, the Jewish population was somewhere around 180000-240000. Which means roughly 1% of the Jewish population suffered some form of attack during this period. Meanwhile, that same link notes the postwar population of Poland was about 24 million. That means the Jewish population was a little less than 1% of the overall population.

      Using these stats (that Jews suffered 2-3% of overall attacks), that means that they were roughly 2-4 times more likely to be attacked than other people in Poland.

      So, it's safe to say that Jewish people were targeted more than others. It's also safe to say that post-war Poland was a particularly violent and bad place to be (for everyone).

    36. Re:just apologize by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 1

      Just to be clear, when I said "suffered some form of attack," I was referring to the various types of programs, individual killings, etc. -- the "victims" I was referring to were generally killed.

      Also, I based my numbers on your link, but I was just trying to point out that lots of people were apparently being killed at this time. Jewish people were targets, undoubtedly, but it was a very violent era.

    37. Re:just apologize by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Nice data.
      It's worth mentioning that even if you only know two people who were killed because they were the same race (or religion) as you, that still creates an environment of fear, and can seriously affect you.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    38. Re:just apologize by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      including literature/poetry written in Polish, which I consider the ultimate indicator of damn good integration/assimilation

      It's really not......in America (and ancient Greece, and ancient Rome for that matter) we've had literature written by ex-slaves, while slavery was still going on. Integration doesn't mean what you think it does.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    39. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      in America (and ancient Greece, and ancient Rome for that matter) we've had literature written by ex-slaves

      ...that was not considered a part of the "national" culture, was not published, was not critically aclaimed and its authors were not respected members of national literary societies and/or artistic bohema, so you argument is invalid again. Acculturation is not what you think it is.

    40. Re:just apologize by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Look up Marcus Tullius Tiro. Uncultured beast that you are, even you may have heard of Aesop. For American slavery check out Frederick Douglass. A famous and great man.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    41. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They disprove my thesis that one nation's participation and acceptance in another nation's mainstream literary life is a sign of assimilation how, exactly?

    42. Re:just apologize by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Because slavery is not assimilation.

      Here's another example: in the late 1800s, Mahler was the head conductor of the Vienna orchestra, and extremely important cultural post. However Jews like him were absolutely NOT assimilated into culture at that time, and they were hated by a large section of the country.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    43. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Poland should just apologize and move on. We all have done terrible things in the histories of our countries. No point trying to hide it.

      Yes, they should apologize. But no one should pay reparations because today's taxpayers had nothing to do with the Holocaust and shouldn't be penalized for it.

    44. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Poland should just apologize and move on.

      Yes they should apologize. But no one should pay reparations, because today's taxpayers had nothing to do with the Holocaust and shouldn't be penalized for it.

    45. Re:just apologize by nnull · · Score: 0

      Were you hired by the Merkel regime to push this nonsense because Poland doesn't want to join in the migrant fun?

    46. Re:just apologize by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      No.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    47. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Poland at two distinct centuries was a home to more than half of the worlds population of Jews. Before the war there were cities in Poland with mostly Jewish population.
      Please try and reproduce the same result in Your country with whichever migrant demography of Your choice looking for a home, and then Poles will apologize.

    48. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because slavery is not assimilation.

      No, it's not. Congratulations on destroying yet another strawman. It was a particularly retarded one this time, as he seemed to claim that:

      1. social success of an ex-slave (who, by definition, is not a slave anymore) defines the status of all "current" slaves,
      2. you can become an ex-Jew,
      3. being a Jew in pre-war Poland, a free man enjoying same statutory rights as the rest of citizens, including religious and economic freedom as well as the right to leave the country at any time, is totally analogous to slavery.

      Mahler was the head conductor of the Vienna orchestra, and extremely important cultural post. However Jews like him were absolutely NOT assimilated into culture at that time

      You must have a very non-standard definition of assimilation then.

    49. Re:just apologize by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      You ignore history: you refuse to acknowledge the cruelty inflicted on the Jewish people by the Poles.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    50. Re:just apologize by jandersen · · Score: 1

      It's a little disingenuous to blame Germany for it, because Polish mobs were killing the survivors from Auschwitz.

      I agree, to some extent. I think your wording highlights a fundamental problem in this kind of debate: people talk about "The Germans", "The Poles" or, indeed, "The Jews", as if they were a uniform mass, all equally responsible for whatever we want to blame them for. The reality is always much more complex than that - responsibility is always personal, individual, and I don't think anybody seriously questions the fact that most Germans were not in favour of the systematic mass extinction campaigns carried out by the Nazis. However, the same applies everywhere - talking about 'Polish Death Camps' may be meant as a shorthand for 'Nazi Death Camps in Poland', but I can easily understand why Polish people feel it is needlessly hurtful.

    51. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You manipulate history. You present acts of cruelty inflicted on the Jewish people by the Poles as:
      1. part of Polish state's official politics towards them,
      2. example of Polish people's uniform attitude towards them,
      3. something unique to Poland in Europe of that time,
      4. part of or equal to planned, systematic extermination undertaken by the Third Reich, to the point of co-responsibility.

      You ignore history. You refuse to acknowledge:
      1. Polish state's high level of statutory tolerance towards the Jews in comparison to all other European countries,
      2. relatively good cultural and economic assimilation of the Jews in Polish pre-war society,
      3. thousands of Polish trees in Yad Vashem,
      4. millions of ethnically Polish civilians killed by the Nazis, most for hiding or otherwise helping the Jews.

      You also ignore the posts you respond to. I explicitly acknowledged the very thing you accuse me of refusing to acknowlege. I'm tired of you responding to all factual arguments with primitive strawmen, so this is my last post in this thread. For your own sake, please educate yourself.

    52. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why do you suggest acts like the Kielce Pogrom were carried out by Poles of German descent and not by "regular" Poles? It's amusing to think (ethnic) Germans held any kind of power to carry out pogroms in 1946's Poland.
      And the main reason "large swaths of Poland [were left] as ethnically German" was because the borders were moved, leaving Millions of Germans in what is today Poland and Russia but was part of Germany before the war similar to how the Czech suddenly found themselves part of the Third Reich in 1938.

    53. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Poland was under ZSRR occupation 1945-1989. No free government in Poland. Polish people (no matter of what descent) were persecuted by communists from ZSRR .

    54. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ZSRR = Soviet Union (not really a union but big prison build by one big east nation)

    55. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are crazy Poland did nothing wrong, deal with it. Poland was victim.
      You can be sued for what you say.

    56. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not significant numbers if any. Poland was occupied post world war II and possibly a lot of polish citizens were persecuted by occupant.

    57. Re:just apologize by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Not to defend a hateful racist policy, but the concentration camps the US built for people of Japanese descent were probably a lot better than the camps the name was coined for (in the Spanish-American and Boer wars), and far better than the German concentration camps, which in turn were far better to be in than the actual death camps, where the prisoners were actively massacred rather than being worked and starved.

      When I think of bad things the US did in that period, I tend to get more riled up about the treatment of the Native Americans, but that's probably a matter of taste.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    58. Re:just apologize by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      However, when a German kills a Jew because the German Government conscripts the German and orders him to kill Jews, the idea of individual responsibility gets pretty strained.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    59. Re:just apologize by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      When I think of bad things the US did in that period, I tend to get more riled up about the treatment of the Native Americans,

      That's kind of a different period, right?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    60. Re:just apologize by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      No, it isn't a different period, and I was shocked to find that out. I had no idea we were being that inhumane to the Native Americans that late. (Not that the current treatment of them can be justified on any moral grounds, but it's improved a lot over the times of kidnapping Native American children, separating them from their own culture by beating them if they showed any sign of recalling it, and training them to be second-class citizens, which was done in the WWII period.)

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    61. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      that was the Italians

    62. Re:just apologize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Man, you are so far off, that it seems someone is paying you to spin all these facts against Poland.

      Danish rescue? 7000 Jews saved. Polish resuce? 450 thousand... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_of_Jews_by_Poles_during_the_Holocaust

      A massacre by Polish mob against Jewish survivors? 42 victims, the events were very chaotic, with unclear involvement of early commie government's forces (with quite many Jewish comrades at the helm). No one denies it happened and efforts were taken to fully understand and explain it.

      Ghetto benches for students? Well, the images shows ten or so right-wing freaks demanding that. At the same time Jews had their own, pretty influential party in Polish parliament, they had a significant role in Polish economy, and Polish culture.

      Fucking brain-washed activists...

  7. Rewrite.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Too bad this rewrite is needed. It would have been easier if we had simply used the correct nomenclature from day one.

  8. Re:I come here oven by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    True I lol'd, but I think you're the one that's gonna burn.

  9. Correction Correction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This software turns "Polish death camp" into "German death camp". People have been German or spoke German for centuries before, and almost a century after (71 years) the death camps operated. Why not use "NAZI death camps" to recognize the 12 year long government responsible.

    1. Re:Correction Correction by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

      Because NAZI was a German party run by Germans and voted into power by Germans?

  10. So, sed? by king+neckbeard · · Score: 2

    Why is sed and other software that can do substitutions inadequate here?

    --
    This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    1. Re:So, sed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      because sed is GNU?

  11. Say what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I believe it's pretty well established that many Poles were not too upset about all the Jew-killin' going on. There is a well-established history of anti-Semitism/pogroms happening prior to the war in Poland, where Jews were widely seen as complicit in the murder of Jesus. We all saw Schindler's List, right? Remember when they're on the trains and the locals are all making the teasing slit-throat gesture with their fingers? That happened, and apparently pretty regularly. Check out the documentary "Shoah" and you'll see survivors tell that story..

    I've heard first hand that the english and hebrew language Auschwitz tour is very different than the Polish version in the degree with which Poland accepts its participation in the genocide... Anyone can confirm?

    1. Re:Say what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I believe it's pretty well established that many Poles were not too upset about all the Jew-killin' going on.

      Still, there were more upset than elsewhere.

  12. News from the future by the_skywise · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Today the government mandated that the Orwellian Plugin be a required built-in feature for all word processors, editing tools and key entry for public safety purposes.

    The Orwellian plugins are widely used to auto-correct incorrect thinking and terminology legally defined as hate speech and promotes a safer and more welcoming and open society.

    In other news chocolate rations are up...

    1. Re:News from the future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      We are at war with Bullshitia.

      We've always been at war with Bullshitia.

      We'll always be at war with Bullshitia.

    2. Re:News from the future by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Got any evidence that any government is seriously consider mandating this?

      As far as I can tell, it's available on a voluntary basis, for an individual to use as a reminder. I don't intend to use it, because I can refer to Nazi death camps in Poland myself. It reminds me of grammar checkers. I am better at grammar than the checkers, but they sometimes point out places where I can improve my writing, so I sometimes pay attention to them. Whether or not I pay attention, each grammatical construct I use is my choice, even when it's a mistake based on a brain fart. It don't stop me form doing bad gramma, if I choose to use it.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  13. Like a SJW Clippy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Like a SJW Clippy. "I see you're trying to write about historical events. Would you like help contributing to the shame pornography that is post-war German culture?"

  14. Revisionist Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Please install our memory hole on your computer so we can make it look like Europe had a long history of totally loving the Jews and making them feel welcome, until mean ole Hitler came along and was the first (and only) anti-Semite in European history.

    Europeans are fucking disgusting in their intellectual dishonesty.

    1. Re:Revisionist Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If Europe had a long history of totally loving the Jews then it MUST be that the Jews were loving and inspired all these dozens of European peoples to love them.

    2. Re:Revisionist Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mighty fine man of Straw you've built there sonny, mighty fine!

  15. German game servers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wish German game servers admins weren't such Nazi's about using the term Nazi. Getting banned for calling someone a grammar Nazi should not be a permanent bannable offense.

    Fuck you Germany for trying to silence and hide your history and fuck your gaming servers for banning me. I didn't want to play with you fucking vocabulary Nazi's anyway.

    1. Re:German game servers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If any country has an obsessive collective guilt, it is Germany. The sensitivity of the word 'Nazi' being used to describe anything that is not national socialism is a consequence of that -- they do not want the world to lose its meaning and its horrible connotations.

    2. Re:German game servers by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      "I'm Clippy! Hello! Would you like to correct 'Polish death camp' to 'Nazi death camp' ?"

      (Yes)

      "Would you like to correct 'weren't such Nazi's about using the term Nazi' to 'weren't such Nazis '? "

      (Yes)

      "Would you like to correct 'grammar Nazis' to 'grammar SJWs' ?"

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  16. Software as Art by doconnor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wouldn't view this as software with a functional purpose, but rather as a political and social commentary in the form of software, rather then a speech or a painting. It doesn't help you achieve a task, but it does make you think about the issues involved.

    It's a very interesting idea.

    1. Re:Software as Art by paai · · Score: 2

      Everybody who is in the slightest interested in WWII and the holocaust will know that the Polish were virulent antisemites. Perhaps even worse than the predominantly european-oriented germans. I cannot imagine that this initiative will make history forget this.

      Paai

    2. Re:Software as Art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      As compared to who, exactly? Name one country at the time and before that wasn't "virulently antisemetic" (and generally racist/nasty to people who weren't of their predominant culture/religion). If you're going to claim they were worse, especially pre-Nazi-occupation, then you'll have to do better than pretend that just a cursory Google search will prove that.

    3. Re:Software as Art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >...but rather as a political and social commentary in the form of software, rather then a speech or a painting.

      Doc you sound like a very interesting person, and perhaps view the world as an interesting & creative place, (which it is). But let's be honest here... assigning this "reminder app" the moniker of Artistic Expression is about as equal as referring to sports fans yelling at the referee to change his mind as Artistic Speech. This app is a peer pressuring technique in the guise of tech. The poles have a lot to be proud of in the 1940's: their dissent towards German hostility and later Russian hostility. They were in a bad spot geographically and got taken advantage of from both sides. This app needn't exist.

    4. Re:Software as Art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And anybody who studies recent Polish history will know that the Jews were virulent antipolonists. Almost half of the SB (Polish KGB) were Jews. They killed and persecuted thousands of Polish people.

  17. Does it fix anything else? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Does it also fix the ridiculously overblown 6000000 figure that is still quoted even though the number of people killed at each death camp has been reduced by orders of magnitude?

    1. Re:Does it fix anything else? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, the numbers are a bit fuzzy, but here's the final question and answer fr you denialists:

      Q) Where are the Jews of Europe?
      A) Mostly in small smears among layers of cinder and ash up to 27 meters thick, which ash heaps are found all across Nazi-occupied Europe.

      I married a lovely woman who is Jewish, and I'd really like to meet my Romainan in-laws, BUT THEY ARE ALL DEAD.

    2. Re:Does it fix anything else? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Does it also fix the ridiculously overblown 6000000 figure that is still quoted even though the number of people killed at each death camp has been reduced by orders of magnitude?

      Note to new Slashdot management: Can you put out the roach motels again? There appears to be another infestation.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re:Does it fix anything else? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck off racist

    4. Re:Does it fix anything else? by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Well... This is a lovely place to be in.

      No, I do not disbelieve the stated numbers. No, I am not racist.

      But, nothing that person said is indicative of any racist beliefs. You do not have to be racist to disbelieve the stats.

      In short, you're an idiot. They *might* be racist. They've given you no reason to believe they're racist. You reached that conclusion on your own and without evidence. I'd suggest that such makes you more prejudicial than the other person has given us cause to believe they are.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  18. Re:What's holocaust? by mitcheli · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As a person who has visited Dachau, my sincere condolences. As for the article, I would think a better way to approach this would be to address the educational material and reference material rather than implementing a revisionist methodology on individual people's thoughts. Seems rather big brother to me. Visiting Dachau and reading the history as it happened there was very eye opening to me. I was under the impression that the German government was a bunch of third world, unsophisticated neanderthals that allowed some megalomaniac take over and slowly build a war machine. ... This impression was very, very wrong. The German government at the time was very scientifically advanced, had a similar structure to what the US has today, and allowed a fair and open election that elected the megalomaniac into office. From there, they passed a law that allowed the "president" to override the congress in times of need. From there, the congress was disbanded, the constitution suspended, and within a month Dachau was opened. The Third Reich had risen. And to learn the passivity of the local population was shocking. People simply didn't care.

    --
    Select from tblFriends where interesting >= 4;
  19. TGSNT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This documentary got me thinking. I don't automatically believe it, but it provides tons of data points to fact check.

    http://thegreateststorynevertold.tv/

  20. Rewrite? Don't you mean correct? by drkoemans · · Score: 1

    From the summary, this sounds like a tool that corrects or adds additional clarity to an otherwise ambiguous phrase. The word "rewrite" almost always has a negative connotation associated with the intent of obfuscating fact. Not sure why the submitter chose to use such a loaded term. I suppose it's possible it was copied from TFA but who reads that?

    1. Re:Rewrite? Don't you mean correct? by Sowelu · · Score: 1

      Reading other comments above (and checking their Wikipedia links), I was surprised to see that this really is dangerous revisionism. There were some very bad and very Poland-specific things going on after the war.

    2. Re:Rewrite? Don't you mean correct? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rewrite is the correct word.

      The Poles were worse than the Nazis. And not much has changed for them since.

    3. Re:Rewrite? Don't you mean correct? by drkoemans · · Score: 1

      Interesting. I stand corrected!

    4. Re:Rewrite? Don't you mean correct? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Almost half of the Polish SB (KGB) since 1945 were Jews. They killed and persecuted thousands of Poles.

    5. Re:Rewrite? Don't you mean correct? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Poles will remain worse than the Nazis until they pay up the $65B ransom to the Jews.

  21. Re:I come here oven by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's ok, I'll just dash off; I can hang about later.

  22. trying to rewrite Polish history by ooloorie · · Score: 2, Insightful

    intended to catch and rewrite terms such as 'Polish death camps' and other phrases which associate the Polish people with the atrocities of the holocaust, rather than the occupying German forces which created and ran the death camps

    The trouble is: the Polish people were actually associated with the atrocities of the Holocaust. Antisemitism and oppression were common in Poland both before and after WWII. The main reason Poles didn't cooperate more with the Nazis was that the Nazis viewed them as racially inferior as well. So, whatever you call the death camps, Poland's own despicable history must not be forgotten.

    1. Re:trying to rewrite Polish history by Megol · · Score: 1

      No, one shouldn't try to hide history (though all countries try to spin it positive). But the Poles didn't make or run the extermination camps so correcting that isn't a problem.

    2. Re:trying to rewrite Polish history by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's still like saying that if the Japanese had occupied the Mariana Islands in WW2 and set up death camps, which the US then immediately burned down upon reconquering the islands, they could be legitimatedly referred to as 'American Death Camps.'

      --
      Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
    3. Re:trying to rewrite Polish history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uhh, it is hard for me to take voices like that seriously. To me, it is akin to acknowleding points of a flat Earth believer. That said, given that I see this being raised more and more often lately, I feel obligated to respond.
      Firstly, I will admit that I am mildly biased. My dad's brother ended up and died in one of those camps. My grandad got his ass shot when he ran from his own house.
      I am not sure I understand your argument though. Are you trying to place an equal sign between random antisemitism in Poland, and atrocities commited by Germany in a systematic fashion? If so, I am not convinced that they are equal. Do you care to elaborate?
      As for the ever-anti-semitic Poland, I am sure you do realize that Jewish diaspora did not end up there by some freak accident. They did not settle there, because it sucked and they were into self-flagellation.They usually ended up there, because the rest of the Europe ( France, for example ) did really appreciate their semitic citizens. They were cast out. Poland welcomed them, because we were, oddly for the times, very accepting of other religions and beliefs.
      We did not like to collaborate ( unlike say, France ), because that would be wrong AND stupid. But I love how you got dibs in our collective psyche 1939 onwards.
      So yeah, Poland's despicable history.. all them goddamn trees in Yad Vashem too.. I am not sure what you are referring to, but I would be happy to discuss some historical facts.

    4. Re:trying to rewrite Polish history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      stop killing the palestinians

    5. Re: trying to rewrite Polish history by ooloorie · · Score: 1
      The camps were and are objectively "Polish" camps, in the sense that anything ever was "Polish": they were in areas that belonged to Poland before annexation by Germany and were returned to Poland after the war. In different words, they were "Nazi Germany's Polish death camps". The term is a legitimate reference to their location, in contrast, to, "Nazi Germany's German death camps".

      Now, if Poland had a long history of tolerance, liberalism, and pacifism, you might argue that the term "Polish" refers not just to a geographic region, but also to a culture for which the crimes committed at Auschwitz are atypical. But Poland did not have such a history, hence there is no need to treat the term "Polish" as anything other than a geographical term.

      Having dealt with that issue, we can ask the question of: why are some groups in Poland trying to change language in this way? And the reason is plainly that they don't want to come to term with their own history of discrimination, intolerance, and violence. Observing that in no way draws an equivalence between the Nazi artrocities and Polish history. It just means pointing out that there are two wrongs, and one wrong shouldn't allow people to pretend the other didn't happen.

      Therefore, people should continue to refer to Auschwitz as one of "Nazi Germany's Polish death camps", leaving out the political qualifier "Nazi Germany's" when it is obvious from context. And, quite separately, Poland should be admonished to come to terms with its past instead of playing linguistic games.

    6. Re: trying to rewrite Polish history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OK, a better geographic argument would be the Japanese occupation of the Aleutian Islands. If there were death camps set up there, then they could be considered American death camps

    7. Re:trying to rewrite Polish history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They would have referred to as the Death Camps of Mariana Islands equivalently. The word "American" is like the word "Communist" or "Nazi" in today's world. It has been detached from its nationalistic meaning and become a cultural concept. American Death Camps would have served fried chicken wings and play country songs for the pleasure of the occupants.

    8. Re: trying to rewrite Polish history by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Yeah and if my aunt had a dick she'd be my uncle. You're reaching for something... Why not just say it instead of beating around the bush and attempting to make false equivalents?

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    9. Re:trying to rewrite Polish history by ooloorie · · Score: 2

      they could be legitimatedly referred to as 'American Death Camps.'

      The term "Polish death camps" is ambiguous; it could refer to the political entity or the geographic region. But since Poland didn't exist as a political entity at the time, it obviously has to refer to the geographic region. It's shorthand for "Polish death camps of the Nazi Regime" or "Nazi death camps in Poland". This is as much a tribute to the millions of Polish victims as it is a reminder to reflect on the relationship between Polish society and the death camps.

      Since the Mariana Islands are not geographically part of America and were not under US rule while the death camps operated there, there is no sense in which they could be referred to as the "American death camps". What they could be referred to is the "Mariana Island death camps", which is short for "Mariana Island death camps of Imperial Japan".

    10. Re:trying to rewrite Polish history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not true. The term "Poland" has no geographical meaning unless Poland exists as a political entity in control of some territory.
      And grammatically, "Polish death camps of the Nazi Regime" has a different meaning than "Nazi death camps in Poland". The second one confers that death camps were of Nazi origin or belonged to Nazis, and they were located in Poland (which also most probably means current territories of Poland). The first one can mean that the death camps were organized or built by Poles, with an additional association of these death camps or Poles with the Nazi regime. This meaning is impossible for the second sentence, and it generally shits on the relationship between Polish society and death camps.

    11. Re: trying to rewrite Polish history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The term "Polish" can mean either in Poland or made by Poles, the term "in Poland' always confers geographical meaning. "Nazi Germany's Polish death camps" therefore can therefore have a different meaning to "Nazi Germany's death camps in Poland". One is therefore preferable to the other, wouldn't You agree?

      And again, continuing to refer to Aschwitz as "Polish death camps" is ambiguous and context-dependant. This term can be used both by a person correctly referring to the geographical position of these camps, as well as a person who blames the existence of these death camps solely on Poles. Referring to Auschwitz as a "death camp in Poland" is less ambiguous, as it always refers only to the location of the camps, not to it's originators. You should stop playing Your linguistic games.

    12. Re:trying to rewrite Polish history by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 1

      Ok, so if the Nazis had set up death camps in conquered France, you could legitimately refer to them as 'French Death Camps?'

      They were Nazi Death Camps. Where they were was irrelevant. Much like Guantanamo Bay is an American Naval Base, despite being in Cuba.

      --
      Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
    13. Re:trying to rewrite Polish history by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      Ok, so if the Nazis had set up death camps in conquered France, you could legitimately refer to them as 'French Death Camps?'

      Yes, you could do so. Of course, it always depends on context. "French death camps" might refer to Nazi Germany's "death camps" in France, or it might refer to "death camps" established by the French government in their colonies. The fact that the phrase is legitimate doesn't mean it's always used correctly.

      Where they were was irrelevant.

      Where they were was quite relevant. The Polish concentration camps were dedicated to the extermination of Polish Jews and select Polish people, as opposed to the French or German concentration camps the Nazis had set up.

  23. Let it go by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Okay Germany, we get it, you're sorry about the whole Holocaust thing. Can we move on yet? It's been 70 years.

    1. Re: Let it go by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Erm... you DO understand that the Auschwitz museum is a Polish museum, not a German one, don't you?

  24. Re:What's holocaust? by FakeStreet123 · · Score: 1, Informative

    I think you should reread the post you replied to, you might find an important logical inconsistency.

  25. Re:What's holocaust? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    My Dad helped empty one of the camps when he was 19. Two days at Dachau in 1945 fucked him up for life; he couldn't even talk about it until the 1980s.

    If you are a holocaust denier/Nazi to get attention, get help.

    If you are a Nazi because you think that is a good thing, you are a deluded fool and I hope you rot in hell. Trust me, the REAL Nazis would have shot a punk like you.

    Learn to love yourself, work through whatever pain leaves you thinking hatred is a good idea, and maybe you have a chance at being a well-adjusted human being.

  26. Re:What's holocaust? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Informative

    The German government at the time was very scientifically advanced, had a similar structure to what the US has today, and allowed a fair and open election that elected the megalomaniac into office. From there, they passed a law that allowed the "president" to override the congress in times of need. From there, the congress was disbanded, the constitution suspended, and within a month Dachau was opened. The Third Reich had risen. And to learn the passivity of the local population was shocking. People simply didn't care.

    Trump 2016

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  27. Don't blame the Holocaust on Poland by Prien715 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Poland had more holocaust victims than any other country with around 2 million of the victims being ethnic Poles. Poland is also number one in Righteous Among the Nations (awarded by Israel for saving Jews during the Holocaust). Basically, Poland was damn proud to be a Democratic state where you could practice whatever religion you wanted which attracted the largest Jewish population of Europe and earned the ire of Germany. A couple right-wing nutters no more represents Poland than Cliven Bundy represents Americans. /., you're better than to present the Polish as a people who cooperated with Germany during the Holocaust -- a view the victims don't share either.

    --
    -- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
    1. Re:Don't blame the Holocaust on Poland by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually 4 million Polish Roman Catholics died - mainly from protecting Jews. That was a significant number compared to the population.

      But you won't hear about that. Except from perhaps Yad Vashem.

    2. Re:Don't blame the Holocaust on Poland by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The reason that Poland had more holocaust victims than any other country is because the Poles were actively collaborating with the Nazis. Those non-Jews that were killed were mostly killed because they were Soviet, communist, anti-Nazi, Jewish sympathisers, &c. Anti-Semitism was Poland's national pastime before the war, complete with ghettoes and segregation. Saying otherwise is dangerous revisionism.
      Post-war Europe is largely pretending that anti-Semitism was a German / Nazi thing, but the fact of the matter is that anti-Semitism was a big thing all over Europe, although it was nowhere as common as in Poland. (Not even in Germany, and many Germans who opposed the Nazi regime were killed by allied bombs because the allies were targeting those areas where they lived. Think about that for a minute.) All over Europe, with few exceptions (Denmark for example), people were happy to give up their Jewish neighbours, sometimes for money, sometimes not even that. Even in the Netherlands, which is known for its tolerance, more people ratted out Jews than ever joined the resistance.
      How are we supposed to learn from history if we have forgotten it?

  28. Historical rewriters never give up. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I knew some Auschwitz surviors. The Polish population was far worse than the Nazis, they were just too incompetent to attempt e genocide on their own. Even today, when Germany a modern and free country, Poland is almost as bad as it was in the time of the POLISH DEATH CAMPS.

  29. Re:What's holocaust? by Sax+Russell+5449D29A · · Score: 1

    As a person who has visited Dachau, my sincere condolences

    You made my day, dear Sir. :-)

    --
    -SR
  30. Re:What's holocaust? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 5, Informative

    >> grandparents died...when they were six

    Not to be an asshole, but I think we're getting whooshed. How did your grandparents have kids if they were six?

  31. reverse-engineered yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    has anyone taken it apart yet to see what OTHER words/phrases The Holocaust Business doesn't want said anymore?
    (am running OSX 10.7 now so they won't let me install it)

  32. oy vey by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The 6 Gorillion

  33. Re:What's holocaust? by mitcheli · · Score: 0

    No comment.

    --
    Select from tblFriends where interesting >= 4;
  34. You are American not Geman by drnb · · Score: 1

    While the majority of Germans may not have been Nazi party members the Nazis were given power by the German people in free and open elections. The German people can not wash their hands of the Nazis through a lack of party membership.

    And you are not German, you and several generations of your ancestors are Americans.

    When my great-uncles went to fight in Europe they were half serious when they joked that they hope they don't shoot any relatives. Being related did not make them think of themselves as Germans rather than Americans.

    1. Re:You are American not Geman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

        While the majority of Americans may not have been republican party members the republicans were given power by the American people in free and open elections. The American people can not wash their hands of the Republicans through a lack of party membership.

      And you are not republican, but you and several generations of your ancestors are Americans.

      When your brothers went to fight in Iraq they were half serious when they joked that they hope they don't shoot any good muslims.

      Oh never mind, you merican heads are so thick. You will never understand.
       

    2. Re:You are American not Geman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Clue: The Democrats voted for the invasion of Iraq too.

    3. Re:You are American not Geman by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      the Nazis were given power by the German people in free and open elections.

      I'm not as sanguine about the fairness of the elections as you seem to be, and the most the elections ever gave the Nazis was to be the second-biggest party in the Reichstag. While that is giving them a great deal of power, it did not enable the Nazis to take over. The final election was something of a backslide for the Nazis.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  35. Couldn't resist by wkwilley2 · · Score: 0

    How many polacks does it take to rewrite the holocaust history?

    --
    Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
  36. Re:What's holocaust? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    "Trump 2016"

    Warning sign: if we hear of Trump hiring JJ Abrams to film his next big rally.

  37. Re:What's holocaust? by Jonah+Hex · · Score: 1

    Time travel, natch!

  38. wut by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've noticed there has been a constant increase of people and media reminding people that the Holocaust happened in the past few years.
    It's parallel to the growing war crimes and crimes against Humanity that Israel has been pulling off in that region, in addition to the racism against black people who even had to stage protests. As if, what is pretty much ancient history now, excuses the shit they are pulling in the present.
    Of course, the justification for deporting blacks rather than giving them asylum is truly worthy of a Nazi victim that has learned well from its ancient oppressor:
    "Keeping the Jewish nation pure, because Jews are special and it's called 'Patriotism', not 'Nazism' ", when they are pulling the same shit Nazis did.

    You'd think Gypsies, Slavs and Homosexuals never existed during the Holocauster. Jews get more priority in being mentioned.

    And yet, the whole world hates Jews yet again despite all this social-engineering and despite WW2, as evidenced by the world just about having enough of Israeli bullshit and recognizing Palestine. I do wonder why.

  39. Re:What's holocaust? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As a person who has visited Dachau, my sincere condolences. As for the article, I would think a better way to approach this would be to address the educational material and reference material rather than implementing a revisionist methodology on individual people's thoughts. Seems rather big brother to me. Visiting Dachau and reading the history as it happened there was very eye opening to me. I was under the impression that the German government was a bunch of third world, unsophisticated neanderthals that allowed some megalomaniac take over and slowly build a war machine. ... This impression was very, very wrong. The German government at the time was very scientifically advanced, had a similar structure to what the US has today, and allowed a fair and open election that elected the megalomaniac into office. From there, they passed a law that allowed the "president" to override the congress in times of need. From there, the congress was disbanded, the constitution suspended, and within a month Dachau was opened. The Third Reich had risen. And to learn the passivity of the local population was shocking. People simply didn't care.

    USA, near future.

  40. Re:What's holocaust? by x0ra · · Score: 1

    How could your grandparents died when they were 6, yet be your grandparents ? They obviously didn't have time to procreate...

  41. Re:What's holocaust? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My grandparents died in the Holocaust when they were six. Show some respect.

    How did people that died at 6, which is well prior to the age at which homo sapiens achieves sexual maturity, become your grandparents? How did the child of these miraculous 6 year old parents survive, or was it born to them at 3 and didn't get taken to the camp?

  42. Re:What's holocaust? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Sounds like Obama, actually.. narcissistic, and writing executive order after executive order (or memo) to bypass Congress. I'm genuinely surprised he didn't try to get a 3rd term somehow, but it ain't over yet.

  43. Re:What's holocaust? by AvitarX · · Score: 2

    Hitler wasn't elected to president, is supporters forced him to be appointed Chancellor, and then increased the Chancellor's power.

    Hindenburg won the run-off, the Nazi's did win a plurality in parliament while government still functioned.

    --
    Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
  44. shameless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Absolutely shameless

  45. camps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Majority of the Poles were sent to Auschwitz
    Majority of the Jews were sent to Birkenau

    In each camp the other side were the guards

    Many many Poles risked their lives protecting Jewish people from being captured, hiding in cellars etc.

  46. Re:Obama's method is superior. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just suspend the constitution one part at a time.

    First amendment? Gay marriage. Suspended. Check.
    Second amendment? Replace Scalia with another leftist loon. Check.

    Frog. Boiling water. Why is it hot in here?

    This is how the left operates.

    Republicans meanwhile try to re-write history and make fake accusations of what the "left" did, often things they did years ago that they think everyone has forgotten.

  47. Re:What's holocaust? by bdh · · Score: 1

    When they were six, or when you were six?

    If the latter, my sympathies.

    If the former, there's a logical problem with people becoming parents at age six.

  48. Re:What's holocaust? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    His parents were both three-parent babies, for a total of six grandparents?

  49. Re:Obama's method is superior. by vel-ex-tech · · Score: 2

    First amendment? Gay marriage. Suspended. Check.

    I think you're a bit premature here. Please double check item 23b section iii on the Agenda. We haven't succeeded until heterosexual marriage is illegal!

  50. Re:Obama's method is superior. by mitcheli · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I get that this is turning into a political debate that is taking staunch political lines between republican (foxnews) and democrat (msnbc) ideologies. And that is unfortunate. That division of ideology is exactly why Trump is doing so well. And that ideology is blind to the fact that it really doesn't matter which political party you align with, the damage come just the same. The Patriot Act, and many of the other political issues that are raised here on Slashdot are bi-partisan. Yes, that means it doesn't matter which soda you choose, both coke and pepsi have a crap ton of sugar in them that will make you fat. Let's shift focus back to the original point of the article and away from whether Obama or Trump or Bush or who the heck ever would be qualified as worse president ever. Let's start picking better presidents and better legislators. Not what Fox or MSNBC says we should pick, who are they to decide what's right for us?

    --
    Select from tblFriends where interesting >= 4;
  51. Re:What's holocaust? by vel-ex-tech · · Score: 1

    Ach, don't compare Abrams to Riefenstahl!

    All though an Abrams production of a Trump rally would be hilarious. I can see the lens flares now. Snap zoom to Trump's hair!

  52. this is crap!~ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    History is history, people may perceive it in different ways but that's up to the individual.. And or propper parenting..
    the right to change history, esp this particular event should be unthinkable..

  53. She's got my grandmother's Holocaust ring! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I didn't know they gave out rings at the Holocaust.

  54. Re:What's holocaust? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Funny

    My grandparents died in the Holocaust when they were six. Show some respect.

    How did people that died at 6, which is well prior to the age at which homo sapiens achieves sexual maturity, become your grandparents? How did the child of these miraculous 6 year old parents survive, or was it born to them at 3 and didn't get taken to the camp?

    Nazi experiments. :-)

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  55. Will it rewrite "Guantanamo Bay Internment Facilit by mbeckman · · Score: 2

    Well, will it?

  56. Ask anyone what did the jews thought about Poland by Nicopa · · Score: 2

    I'm the grandson of Polish jews that came to Argentina. Everybody knows, I've heard that from my family a dozen times, that the Poles were mostly antisemitic, they happily joined the nazis and they even happily stole the property of the escaping jews. I've heard that some people coming here at the time burned their Polish papers because of that. And now this museum is focused in some chauvinist correction than in remembering the real horrors of the time.

  57. Doesn't surprise me people don't believe it. by p51d007 · · Score: 2

    Considering the state of education in the world, how there are millions of people that don't believe the attempted extermination of the Jewish people happened, it wouldn't surprise me that people would try to hold the Polish people responsible, for the death and destruction at the hands of the Nazi party. During the end of the war in 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower forced the German people to clean up and bury those in the death camps, and had the worlds journalist document all the death inside those camps. When asked why, he responded "because there will come a day, that the people of the world will not believe the events that happened". By photographing, and documenting this, no matter what people say, there is hard evidence, that the holocaust did in fact happen, at the hands of the Nazi's.

  58. Jews? Holocaust? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The perpetual holohoax and jew story over and over and over and over..... Will we ever be rid of this nonsense?

    1. Re:Jews? Holocaust? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only when Poland pays them a $65B ransom. Next will be Hungary and others. Not sure what they will come up with after that but probably rinse and repeat.

    2. Re:Jews? Holocaust? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The Hungarians were actually pretty good about protecting Jews, perhaps the best of the German allies after Finland. The burst of Auschwitz activity in 1944 came as the Germans overthrew the Hungarian government and installed a puppet government, which still didn't cooperate fully in shipping off Hungarian Jews.

      If you ever see an argument about bombing Auschwitz, it's about trying to save those Jews.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  59. Re:Obama's method is superior. by kwbauer · · Score: 1

    You mean like the bogus claims by leftists that Republicans were running the South and created all the Jim Crow laws and that it was Democrats who went down there to protest against the Republican Governor Wallace and that Sen. Byrd was never in the KKK until they all of a sudden remember that he was completely reformed?

    Is that the re-writing you are claiming is happening? Or maybe the rewriting that makes the claim that not one single person ever mentioned the 2nd amendment applying to individual private citizens until the NRA fabricated the story somewhere in the 1980s? It really does not take very long to prove that many of the Founding Fathers were under the impression that every one of the rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights applies to private individuals.

  60. Re:What's holocaust? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just another case of getting bamboozled by the Jews. None of this has to do with history. It has everything to do with extorting $65B from Poland and other countries to follow (Hungary, ...).

  61. Re:What's holocaust? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

    Ach, don't compare Abrams to Riefenstahl!

    Yes. At least Riefenstahl knew how to make a decent film.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  62. Re:What's holocaust? by mjwx · · Score: 3, Informative

    This impression was very, very wrong. The German government at the time was very scientifically advanced, had a similar structure to what the US has today, and allowed a fair and open election that elected the megalomaniac into office.

    This isn't strictly true.

    Hitler was not elected fairly per se, during elections in the late 20's the Sturmabteilung (SA or Brown Shirts) stood over elections in many parts of Germany to ensure enough votes were cast for the Nazi party. This was enough to make the Nazi's the second largest party in parliament, giving them enough numbers to cripple it with repeated walkouts until Hitler was given what he wanted by the president, Paul Von Hindenburg. What Hitler wanted was to be given the position or Reich Chancellor. After being given the Chancellors position in 1933 Hitler dissolved the Reichstag (the lower house, similar to the US Congress) and forced general elections. During this time the SA standover men were everywhere in Germany. Hitler also passed laws limiting the freedom of the press at this time. After the Reichstag Fire Decree, civil liberties were severely curtailed.

    After this, the Nazi's stormtroopers, the Sturmabteilung were openly operating in Germany virtually unopposed, enforcing boycots against Jewish business and the like. When Paul Von Hindenburg died in office in 1934, Hitler organised a plebiscite to combine the office of the Chancellor with the office of the President, this passed with a 90% yes vote but this is mainly due to the standover tactics employed by the SA and the Nazis. Hitlers rise to power was a very long and often violent subversion of democracy. Its a bit of a misnomer to say he was legitimately elected.

    As several bills had passed the Reichstag in 1933, laws were able to be made by the Reich Chancellor without the involvement of the Reichstag, Hitler who was now both president and chancellor held absolute power. At this point Hitler also had control of the limited army in Weimar Germany, so a military coup was also out of the question. He began the process of folding the SA into the army (culminating with the assassination of Ernst Rohm, leader of the SA).

    I dont think the US is at this level just yet.

    --
    Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  63. Found it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The most useless app ever made. I really hope it turns into something like Clippy, "looks like you're being insensitive, why not use the PC term ninny muggins instead?"

  64. Re:Ask anyone what did the jews thought about Pola by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 1

    I'm the grandson of Polish jews that came to Argentina. Everybody knows, I've heard that from my family a dozen times, that the Poles were mostly antisemitic, they happily joined the nazis and they even happily stole the property of the escaping jews. I've heard that some people coming here at the time burned their Polish papers because of that.

    As with all such generalizations about a group of people, it's complicated. For many centuries, Poland was the home to the largest Jewish community in Europe because of their policy toward religious tolerance. That changed with the partitions of Poland, where imperial powers (e.g., Russia) started targeting Jews.

    And if you read that article (which is very long), you'll see what was going on in the first half of the 20th century was complicated too. Poland was still home to the largest Jewish community in Europe at that time, and many Jewish people were highly respected. But anti-Semitism was on the rise again in many countries, including Poland.

    My condolences to your family, who must have suffered terribly. But on the whole, it's not clear that Polish people were significantly more anti-Semitic than the rest of Europe at this time.

    And now this museum is focused in some chauvinist correction than in remembering the real horrors of the time.

    I absolutely agree that the horrors should NOT be ignored. On the other hand, well... there's this. As you'll learn there, not only did Polish people likely save a half-million or more Jewish lives during that time, but these Polish people were victims of numerous massacres when they were punished for trying to protect Jews -- estimates are that up to 50,000 Polish people lost their lives just trying to do this.

    So, yeah -- were there bad Poles who betrayed Jews the Nazis, etc.? Of course. Were there also ones who helped Jewish people at the risk of their own lives? Yeah, a lot of those too.

    History is complicated, and little good generally comes from stereotyping or vilifying an entire group of people. Hopefully the irony here is not lost.

  65. What about Armenians? by jmv · · Score: 1

    I'd really like to see the Armenian version of that software. In France, it's a criminal offense to deny the Armenian genocide, while in Turkey it's a criminal offense to say there was an Armenian genocide. Isn't it nice?

    1. Re:What about Armenians? by Richard_at_work · · Score: 1

      The problem with the Armenian genocide is that most modern accounts of it ascribe blame to Turkey, which didn't exist at the time of the genocide - Turkey as we know it fought a war of independence against the former Ottoman Empire, which ruled what we today call Turkey up until its defeat at the end of WW1, upon which it was partitioned and occupied by the Allies.

      The war of independence ended the sultanate which had ruled the Ottoman Empire and the partitioned states for hundreds of years - it was replaced with a completely different governmental structure.

      That is why Turkey is so against the current stance of people around the Armenian genocide - its somewhat akin to blaming the current US state for actions carried out by the British state before the war of independence...

  66. Re:What's holocaust? by BoogieChile · · Score: 2

    But where were the survivors buried?

  67. Re: What's holocaust? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trump 2016

    I expect that if this is implying Trump is a parallel to the previously I mentioned megalomaniac, you are not aware of the Executive Orders put into place by the current Resident of the White House and several of his predecessors. They state with no uncertain terms that in times of emergency, various critical industries and entities will be directly controlled by the president.

    Yeah, Trump is a showman and an opportunist, but let him dig his own hole. Pretty sure he doesn't need your shovel; the hole is already deep enough from current and previous administrations.

  68. fluffy rabbits by paai · · Score: 0

    There is a school of thought - a very large school - that sees prewar Europa as a green pasture with ever blue skies and fluffy rabbits and ponies, foremost among them the poor, innocent Poles. Then the bad Germans came and started killing the poor, defenceless rabbits.

    This image is not quite correct. The Poles tought to be on the winning side, and already had taken their share of the division of Tchechoslowakie - Churchill in his memoires says that the Poles behaved like hyenas. Nevertheless, they have been dining out on their role of victims ever since the war.

    Facts.

    Paai

  69. Re:What's holocaust? by packrat0x · · Score: 1

    Hitler was appointed, not elected.

    --
    227-3517
  70. Your post looks like a full-fledged nazism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anti-jew actions of individual groups of people generalized to "Poland". A nation-related exaggeration typical to nazists.

    I do not defend that nation, they can speak for themselves. But I won't defend internet nazist hate speech as well.

  71. Exactly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Definitely, crusades, slaughter of natives, slaves, forced prostitution, it's terrible.

  72. Re:What's holocaust? by mitcheli · · Score: 1

    I don't think the US is at the level where Congress is being nullified, but that's not to say that it can't be. Congress is at the level where it's passing laws that "bend" the rules of the Constitution, both Republicans and Democrats are quick to point out instances where such bending impedes their unique sensibilities. Civil Rights organizations are quick to point this out as well. I did simplify my explanation of the history to fit in the 5 minute write up. But you're right, there is more to it. But the point was, it was fast. And the take over was targeted against a similar form of government to what the US has. I believe the law in question that was passed was called "The Enabling Act" which enabled Hitler to circumvent the Reichstag. But that's not saying that a President and Congress who are of the same party can't could push other similar legislation in the US. The three houses of Government are only effective at preventing hostile take overs such as what happened in Germany when the checks and balances between each other are respected.

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    Select from tblFriends where interesting >= 4;
  73. The most sacred thing in western culture: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why is the most holy, most sacred thing in the western culture? Is it... the pope? The president? Can you mock the pope? Can you joke about being a pedophile? Can you joke about being antisemite and a holocaust denier? No. There is a boundary you can not pass:
    http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/sep/20/lars-von-trier-retracts-apology-nazi
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/mel-gibson-puts-anti-semitism-behind-him-ive-done-what-i-need-to-do-9591666.html
    You can joke about anything, but if you talk ill about the holocaust you become a pariah and no one will touch you or give you job. Why is that? Why is it, that Hollywood produces so many movies about the nazis and holocaust? Why not movies about the korea war, or the more recent vietnam? If you look at the latest 100 war movies, 90% will be about nazis, holocaust or the jews. To quote the great actor Marlon Brando:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlon_Brando#Comments_on_Jews.2C_Hollywood_and_Israel

  74. Re:wut - bloody troll by bstarrfield · · Score: 1

    There's more mention of the Holocaust now as the remaining survivors pass away. The people who were actually in the concentration camps will soon be no more, and the events that they suffered must be remembered.

    I suppose that your reference to blacks being deported refers to the economic migrants who cross the Israeli-Egyptian border. They are provided housing, health care, food - but they are not wanted in this country. They bring no skills, have no affinity for the culture, and as a group are simply trying to find the first first world country that they can move to. You may also pay attention to the large immigration of Ethiopian Jews who are successfully integrating into Israeli society.

    Your insinuation that Israel is equivalent to Nazi Germany is beyond the pale of rational thought. There are no death camps; there are no death marches; there is the reality that 20% of Israel's voters are Arab.

    Israel was founded to be a Jewish state, after literally a thousand years of anti-Semitism in Europe and the Arab world. It's not a case of keeping the Jewish people "pure", it's a case of keeping the Jewish people alive. And after over six million Jews were murdered in a few short years, I think we have a compelling argument for having our own safe and secure state.

    You should know that I'm very left wing - I want the Palestinians to have a state, and I live less than eight miles from the West Bank. Given how the Palestinians have handled Gaza and how Hezbollah has handled South Lebanon, you may understand if enthusiasm for that idea is not high amongst the Israeli populace.

    The whole world hates Jews? Are you speaking for yourself anonymous coward or do you have any real evidence? And if you hate Israel and Jews so much, you should almost certainly throw out the computer your spreading your vile with, as it's CPU was designed here by evil Jews.

    --
    /* Dang, I can't type that well. */
  75. Re:wut - bloody troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You don't have death camps, cordoning off a people so they are like caged dogs and then labeling them as terrorists when the dog bites back suffices.

    You came in here with a load of anecdotal bullshitting and poorly thought out trained (because your post is like a copy paste as i always see the same poor arguments from pro-Israeli appartheid supporters) appeals to emotion. I leave you here with documented history:
    http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27883685
    and shit like this:
    Emulating Nazi Germany, from brainwashing and desensitizing children by forcing them to look at pictures of death and genocide, and having mandatory trips to concentration camps and such, much like Nazis did in regard to their children by doing the same and cultivating their anger with past historical attrocities against Germans ,to seizing lands illegaly and forcing populations to evict by either force, destroying their crops and nature, much like Nazis did in regard to Czechia and Poland [evicting populations is also regarded as ethnic cleansing under the human rights definitions]
    (Example:The Christian family refusing to give up its Bethlehem hill farm
    http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27883685 ,to using White Phosphorous against innocent populations
    (Example: 2008-2009- Israel Fires White Phosphorous Shells Into Civilian Locations, Including a Crowded Refugee Camp. At first, the Israeli army categorically denied the use of white phosphorous gas on civilians (a war crime), but then later admitted it when video footage made it impossible to deny. These weapons were made in the USA http://www.hrw.org/news/2009/03/25/israel-white-phosphorus-use-evidence-war-crimes. The entire planet criticized the barbaric and internationally illegal war crimes, but President Bush and the United States supported the Israeli atrocities, which hurt America’s standing in the world.) ,to allowing war crimes perpetrated by other external groups so long as they are of benefit to Israel
    (Example: 1982- Sabra and Shatila Massacres- The Israeli military purposefully allowed a right-wing Lebanese militia to enter two Palestinian refugee camps, which were under Israel’s control, and rape, murder, and dismember 800 civilians. Nearly all of the dead were women, children, and elderly men. In 1983, an Israeli investigation concluded that then Defense Minister Ariel Sharon bore “personal responsibility” for failing to prevent the massacre. The New York Times recently uncovered http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/opinion/a-preventable-massacre.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0 de-classified transcripts of conversations between US officials and Israeli officials, in which Israeli officials misled the Americans about the events in Beirut, and bullied them into accepting outrageous accusations that the Palestinian women and children were “terrorists,” and therefore deserved to be massacred. According to the New York Times, “The Sabra and Shatila massacres severely undercut America’s influence in the Middle East, and its moral authority plummeted.” Only a year later, in 1983, the US marine barracks were bombed in Lebanon, in which 241 marines were killed.)
    , and many more.

    Costing the Western world (especially USA) trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of potential jobs for Americans and westerners due to mere association with Israel having a negative business and diplomatic effect in terms of the whole Middle Eastern world. Not to mention costing the Western world its reputation by stealing its technology and selling to China in an apparent attempt to play God with global power balances between East and West to benefit Israel. To the point where for once the greed of congress and the greed of western governments has a positive effect as they have finally had enough with Israel, to the point of even allowing Palestinian recognition to go forth in an apparent showcase that Israel has used up its goodwill.
    Examples:
    -1987- Israel Starts Rec

  76. Re:Obama's method is superior. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    First amendment? Because the government won't support religious objections on who gets to file jointly and who's next-of-kin any more? Religious freedom means that you get to forbid anything offensive to your religion. It means that your religious group can make its own internal rules and can't order others about.

    Second amendment? Do you realize when that died? Do you realize who was President when the right to go out and by a modern military rifle was taken away? That leftist loon, Reagan. If the "well-regulated milita" clause means anything, it means that the Second is talking about military arms. Banning some guns because they look scary while not banning other, more or less equivalent, guns, which is about the looniest thing the Left did about gun control, is trivial compared to that.

    I haven't seen many Third Amendment cases go by, but, moving on, do you realize which leftist loon President got civil forfeiture ramped up to what I consider unconstitutional levels? Reagan again. There have been lefties in favor of it and righties against it, but Reagan and the Republicans started us on the path.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  77. Re:What's holocaust? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    I think that calling Hitler elected in a free and fair election is either ignorant or deceptive, myself.

    It's also worth considering the political environment. The US Government is one of the oldest in the world, with a strong tradition of individual rights. The Weimar Republic was not really popular, being the Germans' first real attempt at a democratic republic, and with large parties on the left and right that wanted to change it drastically. The right wing had been attacking it for a long time, as part of a plan to avoid admitting they lost the Great War fair and square.

    The Reichstag could pass the Enabling Act, and other laws that ended the Republic, going far beyond what the US Congress and US President can do. The US courts are accustomed to slapping down the other branches of government as needed.

    The US is very far from being as susceptible to totalitarian rule as 1933 Germany was.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  78. Re:What's holocaust? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

    The Holocaust or Shoah which the Israelis (some of whom are Jews, but there are also non-Jewish Israelis) are perpetrating upon the Palestinians (some of whom are Muslims, but there are also non-Muslim Palestinians). There's also a historical reference, but that's an active Holocaust at the moment.

    --
    Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  79. Re:Obama's method is superior. by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

    And then the mindless followers on both sides completely miss the fact that they are merely two faces of the same party.

  80. Re:What's holocaust? by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 1

    The holocaust is the death of millions and a historical event denied by dimwitted right-winged fools like you. It is quite remarkable how dumb some people are!

  81. Re:What's holocaust? by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 1

    Obama could do without executive orders if the Republican Congress would start doing its job! All they do is stall and say "No" to everything. Someone needs to keep things going.

  82. Re:Obama's method is superior. by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 1

    What does gay marriage have to do with the first amendment? If anything, the pseudoreligious propaganda from the rightwingers is what goes against the first amendment. The second amendment was adopted before machine guns were invented and incredibly accurate firearms were mass produced. I'd be fine with keeping the 2nd Amendment if all that can be sold and carried are muzzle loaded muskets and folks have to cast their own lead bullets. The fact that times have changed is completely ignored by rightist loons like Scalia.

  83. Re:Obama's method is superior. by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 1

    Huh? Trump is in the right extremist (Fox News) camp up to his hair. The only one who is even worse is christian terrorist Cruz.

  84. Re:Obama's method is superior. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You mean like the bogus claims by leftists that Republicans were running the South and created all the Jim Crow laws and that it was Democrats who went down there to protest against the Republican Governor Wallace and that Sen. Byrd was never in the KKK until they all of a sudden remember that he was completely reformed?

    No, the bogus claims by conservatives and right-wingers, most of whom identify with the Republican party in the US, who claim that the leftists of today have some direct association with the segregationist Democrats who ran the South after the Civil War(a classic case of attempted guilt by association), and who seem to have never cracked open a history book to learn about the past of Strom Thurmond, yet seem to know Byrd was lying when he said he repudiated the KKK's racism. You know, the Strom Thurmond who ran against Truman as a Dixiecrat to oppose Truman's civil rights efforts, and then later joined the Republican Party when it decided to reach out to the disaffected southerners who were finding the Democratic party becoming too liberal for their own preferences. Republicans today don't seem to even know about that. They know about Byrd, a dead man, but the living? Nope, they can't even identify David Duke. And it's the Republican Party today that has heavily gerrymandered the states of Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida, and even now has a hard-on for Trump's bombastic proclamations of American Exceptionalism. But we don't care about that, do we?

    Or perhaps you've seen the liberal assassins list? The one that includes John Wilkes Boothe and Charles Guiteau, among others.

    It takes a lot of balls to claim a member of the Know-Nothing Party was a liberal.

    Sorry if you're not familiar with some of the disreputable things that are taking place now, but perhaps you could stand to check it out.

    Heck, just tell us the Clinton Death List is a fraud. That shouldn't be too hard.

    It really does not take very long to prove that many of the Founding Fathers were under the impression that every one of the rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights applies to private individuals.

    The Founding Fathers are dead, they know longer get to say what they actually think, so relying on them is foolish. It's better to say what's right today, rather than rest your case on prior authority.