Tuesday, January 27, 2015

International Holocaust Remembrance Day






Did you know that today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day? I didn't until 5 days ago. On January 27, 1945 the Soviet troops liberated those still alive at Auschwitz concentration camp and today, January 27, has become an international day to take a few moments and remember those who were barbarically treated and killed. It kind of puts things into perspective doesn't it? Here we are complaining that we didn't get that sweater for Christmas that we hinted about for weeks and not so very long ago people were being stripped naked and made to march in the snow because someone thought that they should be exterminated. We complain that we work too hard and don't get paid enough and the holocaust victims worked themselves to death so they wouldn't be shot to death. I should never again complain about how much I get paid an hour. We whine that someone made something for dinner that we didn't like (I myself have been guilty of this) yet the targeted people of the 1940's often died because they didn't have anything to eat at all. How sad and tragic the times of yesteryear and how blessed and privileged we are today.




I was going to post some pictures here but most of the ones I saw were so horrific they took my breath away and the ones that weren't horrific just didn't convey the message properly. So when you are done here go google some. It blows my mind how people could do such things to another human being.




May I now draw your attention to a present day holocaust. In countries like Sudan whole armies have been created to exterminate a people group called Christians. Church doors are barricaded and the buildings are set on fire and if anyone does escape they are shot and killed. I can't even write most of the things that I've heard happen there. They aren't dissimilar to the horrors and tragedies of the things that happened at Auschwits and other places like it.


Let me get a little closer to home now. There is a whole group of people being killed in our own nation. They are usually referred to as fetuses.  Interesting fact: the reason such atrocities were allowed to take place back in the 1940's is because the Jewish people were "de-humanized" in the eyes of their countrymen and the like. Therefore killing them wasn't any worse than slaughtering a herd of cows or sheep. If you look closely at the abortion campaign they are doing the same thing to babies calling them fetuses and they aren't telling the whole story. A baby starts to take on human traits very early in its development but usually they are just referred to as a bunch of unwanted cells.


Not that I want to be seen as getting on my soap box here or to be all political and controversial. It is, however, International Holocaust Remembrance Day and I would be remiss if I didn't bring it full circle and just point to the past and act as if we only have unicorns and rainbows in our present day. There are monstrous brutalities taking place every day in our world. Some foreign, some domestic.  So let us take a moment to remember those who have had their lives tortured from them due to no fault of their own. Also let us take a moment to pray for those living under genocidal dictatorship and also for those lives who have yet to see their first day on this earth.
Also may we thank God for his grace and mercy for the injustices we commit daily whether knowingly or unknowingly.