The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking

[Meclazine for Israel]

The Holocaust was simply shocking on all levels.

Inevitably sad part of history which no one could take pleasure from.

I feel almost sick for the Jewish community for the Pogroms and public executions in Eastern Europe in July - December 1941. These events preceded the gas chambers and resulted in 2 million Jews killed.

The most disturbing thing about the Holocaust was the intense focus on Eastern Europe in Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine.

This area was a scene of complete and utter madness.

Was it because of:

(i) large Jewish populations;
(ii) sympathy for anti-semitic Aktionen;
(iii) killing the Jews without German intervention.

Clearly, with large numbers of people showing up to the Pogrom's and public hangings, these other countries were anti-Semitic in nature and appear sympathetic to the initial stages of the Holocaust. But as time progressed and word spread, the mood changed.

The Romanian military, for example, killed 500,000 Jews before they called it off because of a public backlash to the open-air executions.

Unfortunately for the Ukrainian Jews of 1941, the Einsatzgruppen did not cease their murderous activities. They would move their attention to Latvia were they made the country Judenfrei - Jewish Free in the meanest circumstances.

The situation must have been harrowing when you try and equate the numbers involved.