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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."

17 of 228 comments (clear)

  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. 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 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.

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  3. 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.

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    1. 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...

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    2. 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.

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  4. 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...

  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. 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.

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  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. 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

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  9. 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.'

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  10. 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?

  11. 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.

  12. 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?

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  13. 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. :-)

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  14. 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.

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