Let me enlighten you with the jewish point of view:
Please,thats what I like,to find all perspectives to try to reach an understanding. I do feel slightly guilty for posting what I did incase it just contributes to perpetuating myths and rumours,but unfortunatly it was something I witnessed with my own eyes and felt reather more disapointed than angry. I understand that they are young and that this must be a hugely emotional experiance for many of them,and I also understand the idea of sticking up 2 fingers to the world and making a proud statement with the Flag. Just not in such a place,please remember it is not a soley Jewish place of pilgramage,I know you will know this as every year the commemerations feature Jewish,Polish catholic,Roma and other speakers/survivors,so I feel this should be a place for solemm reflection,not Patriotism. Drape the flags everywhere else if you wish,as flags go its one of the more attractive after all :)
Technically that message would have been more appropriate to express in Birkenau and not Auschwitz I, but that difference is a bit much to expect from high-school kids.
I sort of agree,but again,ALL the camps in that place,in fact almost all the camps in the german sphere of influence were not only exclusivly places of murdered Jewish people,they are tragedys for the whole world,not one part,however the percentages play out,to claim overlordship to the suffering.
let me just point out this comes from someone who,as Ive said else where on here ,Ive probably been to more than the avarage amount of places connected to the holocausts various strands than the avarage "christian" Briton,and on my own ,not as part of some morning day trip before a jolly to the salt mines...Im also going to play the old,some of my best friends are____card,the difference here being that it rarely comes up,peoples faith seems less relevant here
That would really surprise me. Israelis are known for loving India and its people.
Yes,I know that and so did he,but,he isnt "obviously " hindu,no turban or anything ,just "british asian" looking. Who knows where the kids came from,who am I to judge if they were say from Sderot or someplace,in the 80s early 90s when I was their age the sound of a northern irish accent in a pub could cause a little unease.....
This can't be compared to what your students might be going through. For Israeli kids this is very personal.
I will pull you up on this one,if you dont mind. How do you know what "my" kids were going through(and I sound soppy here but I do believe kids are not mine or yours but "ours" to guide and look out for.) many in my part of the UK are of Polish heratage,many indead lost relatives in those camps or to death squads,Im not one to believe that the act of shooting someone in the back of the neck or letting them burn in a barn is any more or less abhorent depending on who the victims ancestors were. We also had a Jewish lady as amuture student on one of the trips,so,is her British Jewishness less valid than "your" Israeli Jewishness?
But again,maybe Im an idealist,but I sincerely feel that a tragedy and a crime against innocents is a terrible thing for anyone to try to understand, I feel no more pain for the suffering my ancestors felt in either the Highland clearances after the 45 on one side(where families were ethnically cleansed and often burned in their farms) or for my Irish ancestors in the potatoe famine than I do for the suffering of the jewish people in the last war or the innocent german children killed in the RAFs firebombing raids.It all sickens me to the same mindnumbing level.
