Exactly seventy-nine years ago, the Allied forces fighting World War II landed on the beaches of Normandy to make a final thrust at Germany, who by then had nearly finished murdering 6 million Jews! Four years ago, tears streaming down my cheeks, I watched the late Queen and others give tributes to the troops who landed that day in Normandy, the only difference being I watched it on TV while they did in person at Portsmouth.
Along with the other dignitaries watching the tribute was the head of Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel.
I wondered what her feelings were as she watched 75 year old pictures of how the whole world attacked her country, not for land or loot but to stop the cruel Hitler and his wicked genocide programme.
What are the feelings of millions of Germans whose fathers and grandfathers were party to this mass murder?
How did they allow Hitler to gain power?
How did they allow him to continue his pervasive acts?
How did they allow themselves to be convinced that this monster was the right person to rule?
While visiting the Holocaust museum some years ago, I realized that something Hitler relied on completely was the art of deception.
He convinced his people that he would lead Germany onto the path of progress.
He convinced Germans they were a superior race, and others residing in their country were second rate citizens who needed to be destroyed.
And the people believed him. Sounds strikingly familiar right?
He was able to rile his Germans to kill six million innocent men, women and children! Not batting an eye to their screaming, and cries for help in the gas chambers they themselves had built.
How?
I asked this question to six Germans who had visited my home a few years ago, and they put their heads down in shame.
It was a deception of the highest order. Lies spread about a particular community. Hate, built up about a race, and that laid the foundation for a genocide of the hugest magnitude ever.
In Shakespeare’s play, ‘Macbeth’, a distraught, guilt racked, sleep walking Lady Macbeth cries out, “Out damned spot!” while trying to wash her hands of the murder she had helped commit.
Will you also have to cry like Lady Macbeth some day? Because look closely at T-Day, which is Today? Even as hate is used in plenty today, as Muslims are blamed for almost any mischief, whether it’s a love affair gone wrong or a train crash, as churches are destroyed and Christians threatened, beware! Let your children and grandchildren not have to cry the same way or bow their heads in shame years later, as the world turns to India one day and asks, “How?” to you..!
Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and author. He blogs at www.bobsbanter.com and can be reached at bobsbanter@gmail.com