Shoah

So today, of course, marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Here is Primo Levi in his preface to Survival in Auschwitz:

Many people--many nations--can find themselves holding, more or less wittingly, that "every stranger is an enemy." For the most part, this conviction lies deep down like some latent infection; it betrays itself only in random, disconnected acts, and does not lie at the base of a system of reason. But when this does come about, when the unspoken dogma becomes the major premise in a syllogism, then, at the end of the chain, there is the Lager. Here is the product of a conception of the world carried rigorously to its logical conclusion; so long as the conception subsists, the conclusion remains to threaten us. The story of the death camps should be understood by everyone as a sinister alarm-signal.

Our President's remarks upon the occasion:

. . . In places like Auschwitz, evidence of the horror of the Holocaust has been preserved to help the world remember the past. We must never forget the cruelty of the guilty and the courage of the victims at Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps.

During the Holocaust, evil was systematic in its implementation and deliberate in its destruction. The 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz is an opportunity to pass on the stories and lessons of the Holocaust to future generations. The history of the Holocaust demonstrates that evil is real, but hope endures.

Indeed.

Among Cheney's comments to survivors:

. . . Evil did not have the final say. You survived terror. . . . We must face down hatred together. We are dedicated to the task at hand, and we will never forget. Let he who makes peace in the heavens grant peace to all of us.

I'm too disgusted to even comment. You all know what I'd say anyway. Something about opportunistic warmongers.