AC,

What are you saying, Aushwitz wasn't a purpose built death camp, where over 1 million people perished. Are you saying there were no purpose built gas chambers and ovens to burn the bodies in? Are you saying deaths were somewhat accidental, caused by mostly "cramped conditions". Do you deny the Holocaust and 6 million dead, caused by State sanctioned murder?

CM is ready to agree with what you say.

There is something about Aushwitz at 9pm tonight on SBS.

It is evident that the ten commandments have been violated in the behaviour of nations we are discusing. Yet people want to do things with a different set of values.

The Ten Commandments are:

You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make idols.
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet.

I think the ten commandments can be reduced to four. I see nothing wrong with making idols. It doesn't hurt anybody. The first commandment allows polytheism as long as one puts the god in the Bible first so the commandment seems pointless. Putting the name of the lord in vain also hurts no one. There are different sabbaths for Jews, Christians, Muslims and possibly others. Covetting also hurts nobody. In the Bible only women are condemned for adultery so the commandment is sexist and unfair.

I favour honoring father and mother, not stealing, murdering or bearing false witness and discarding the other six commandments.

Hi david f,

I believe it was only in recent times, the word kill was removed from the Ten Commandments, and the word murder substituted, thus sanctioning state sponsored murder. A true Christian is a pacifist. In Buddhism there are no Commandments, but to strive for true Enlightenment one has to have a personal set of Commandments and values to live by.

Josephus wrote, “It is important to realise many Jews fled to Christian England during the Holocaust.

It is important to remember the Evian Conference:

“Between 1933 and 1939, Jews in Germany were subjected to arrest, economic boycott, the loss of civil rights and citizenship, incarceration in concentration camps, random violence, and the state-organized Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass") pogrom. Jews reacted to Nazi persecution in a number of ways. Forcibly segregated from German society, German Jews turned to and expanded their own institutions and social organizations. However, in the face of increasing repression and physical violence, many Jews fled Germany. More Jews might have left Germany had such countries as the United States and Great Britain been more willing to admit them.

Between 1933 and 1939, Jews in Germany were subjected to arrest, economic boycott, the loss of civil rights and citizenship, incarceration in concentration camps, random violence, and the state-organized Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass") pogrom. Jews reacted to Nazi persecution in a number of ways. Forcibly segregated from German society, German Jews turned to and expanded their own institutions and social organizations. However, in the face of increasing repression and physical violence, many Jews fled Germany. More Jews might have left Germany had such countries as the United States and Great Britain been more willing to admit them.

Between 1933 and 1941, the Nazis aimed to make Germany judenrein (cleansed of Jews) by making life so difficult for them that they would be forced to leave the country. By 1938, about 150,000 German Jews, one in four, had already fled the country. After Germany annexed Austria in March 1938, however, an additional 185,000 Jews were brought under Nazi rule. Many Jews were unable to find countries willing to take them in.

Many German and Austrian Jews tried to go to the United States but could not obtain the visas needed to enter. Even though news of the violent pogroms of November 1938 was widely reported, Americans remained reluctant to welcome Jewish refugees.

continued

continued

In the midst of the Great Depression, many Americans believed that refugees would compete with them for jobs and overburden social programs set up to assist the needy.

Congress had set up immigration quotas in 1924 that limited the number of immigrants and discriminated against groups considered racially and ethnically undesirable. These quotas remained in place even after President Franklin D. Roosevelt, responding to mounting political pressure, called for an international conference to address the refugee problem.

In the summer of 1938, delegates from thirty-two countries met at the French resort of Evian. Roosevelt chose not to send a high-level official, such as the secretary of state, to Evian; instead, Myron C. Taylor, a businessman and close friend of Roosevelt's, represented the US at the conference. During the nine-day meeting, delegate after delegate rose to express sympathy for the refugees. But most countries, including the United States and Britain, offered excuses for not letting in more refugees.

Responding to Evian, the German government was able to state with great pleasure how "astounding" it was that foreign countries criticized Germany for their treatment of the Jews, but none of them wanted to open the doors to them when "the opportunity offer[ed]."
Even efforts by some Americans to rescue children failed: the Wagner-Rogers bill, an effort to admit 20,000 endangered Jewish refugee children, was not supported by the Senate in 1939 and 1940. Widespread racial prejudices among Americans—including antisemitic attitudes held by the US State Department officials—played a part in the failure to admit more refugees.”

In general Christian countries were unwilling to give refuge to Jews fleeing Nazis.