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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."

10 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. 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...

  2. 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.

  3. 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?"

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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 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.
  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.