A00069 - The Work of Sisyphus
I completed viewing "The U. S. and the Holocaust" last night. It was as advertised. Very compelling television, but I suspect it was not watched by many. Very compelling history, but I suspect that the lessons were never learned.
Nevertheless, we continue to do the work of Sisyphus and as such I provide the following tidbits that may highlight what was recently seen.
First, whenever I see clips of Jesse Owens running at the 1936 Olympics and hear about how the racist Hitler was angered by the demonstration of the superior athletic prowess of a black man, I am inclined to not ascribe the hate to all Germans, but rather to remember the story of Luz Long, the German long jumper who Jesse Owens beat in competition, but who befriended Jesse after the competition and warmly congratulated him in front of the assembled German people. Please read for yourself about the story of love and brotherhood that was also a product of the 1936 Olympic Games.
I am also mindful that while millions of Jews were the intended victims of the Holocaust, they were not the only ones. The television show notes that the infirm, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Roma, were also targets for extermination. However, it failed to mention a little known group of people which also was targeted... the Afro-Germans.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/afro-germans-during-the-holocaust
Finally, the Holocaust Museum website notes that there were African American soldiers and that some of these soldiers participated in the liberation of the Jews from Hell. However, what I find remarkable is that despite the evidence of the evil that had been perpetrated against the Jews, not all Americans were persuaded that evil, in fact, had been done. Indeed, the commander of the tank battalions that actually liberated the Jews of Buchenwald and Dachau appears not to have been swayed by their predicament.
It seems that history repeats because the hearts of men do not change.
Peace,
Everett "Skip" Jenkins
Fairfield, California
September 23, 2022
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