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In the starting of a new renaissance lies mankind's only hope to regain its humanity and to protect its civilization. Unless this is done, the victimization of humanity will continue as it has, and will broaden into truly unspeakable horror that the global society is already set up for. There is no regression possible on this path - a path that is continuously expanding.
The present path of society is mapped out by feudalist and fascist ideologies which must be abandoned. They must be abandoned in every aspect, totally, in their entirety.
Some people may disagree and argue that the present process can be cleansed with civility and be contained. In fact, this is deemed to be a desirable option. Thus, the words, "Never Again!" have become forgotten while the rot continues in silence and escalates. It escalates for as long as the idea continues that humanity consist of lesser and greater people, and below them, subhuman species of targetable people.
The Nazi camp system, which had become a living hell for the targeted people of the Nazi holocaust who were not immediately executed, does by no means represent the pinnacle of inhumanity, though they were tortured, terrorized, starved, and worked until their strength was used up, when they were discarded.
The Nazi escalation of cruelty appears to have had no high point but continued the chain of unbroken escalation to the very last day. In the final days of Hitler's power, before Germany would be overcome by Allied forces, the vast camp system was emptied out, by which the people were forced into long marches lasting for weeks in the icy weather of April 1945. These had become gigantic death marches for many. The marches had no real destination, covering distances ranging from 170 to 250 miles. In the end, in most cases, the marches terminated near the point of departure.
During the Helmsbrecht March, which consisted of mostly women and girls, the prisoners were beaten senselessly, even as they walked. They were all lightly dressed and barely fed, with executions continuing daily. When food was offered by the nearby population to the desperately hungry lot of humanity as the marches passed through villages and town, the prisoners were not allowed to receive the nourishment. Those who accepted the heaven-sent bread that was offered, were beaten mercilessly, and the morsel of bread was taken from them and cast to the birds.
Often, the marchers were forced to sleep in the open, even when frost was on the ground and facilities were offered for their use. Many would not rise in the morning. In the final days some of the marches ended in mass slaughters. At the town of Gardelegen, a march of over 5,000 ended in utter catastrophe. The people were herded into a barn with the help of local police and the Hitler Youth, involving children. As the walls gave way under the pressure of the driven throng, the barn was doused with gasoline and set ablaze. The pyre was still burning when the Allies arrived. Little did the Allied soldiers who put the fire out, realize that a vastly larger pyre was already being prepared in which, three months later, 170,000 people suffered the same fate, for which the war was evidently extended until the atomic weapons were ready for their demonstration.
Like the pyre in Gardelegen, which had nothing to do with waging a war, but was lit when the war was over for all practical purposes, so the atomic pyres in Japan were ignited for ideological reasons. It is suggested by historians that the war was extended, because the murdering of human beings on such a vast scale, for nothing more than a demonstration exercise, could never be justified outside the theatre of war, at least not in the 1940s. Of course, now the pyres are burning again in Africa, in the Congo, in Rwanda, and possibly Uganda and other countries, too.
Daniel Goldhagen presents evidence in his book that the Jewish segment of the Nazi victims was especially singled out for harsh treatment, which seems hardly possible, though totally believable under the rubric of ideologies build on concepts of sub-human species, of which, in Nazi eyes, the Jewish people were the worst. They were 'polluters' of the race. This brought extended cruelty towards them.
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