Eighty Years

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Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day, so it seems appropriate to mention it on its eve here tonight. 2025 is a significant milestone year in that it marks the eightieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. One-Point-One Million people were murdered there by the Nazi regime in the space of five years. In "The Kingdom of Auschwitz" by Otto Friedrich, he describes in awful detail the 'processing' of the victims of the Final Solution from beginning to end. I urge any Holocaust sceptic or worse, denier, to read this slim, intense volume at least once. In common with John Hersey's "Hiroshima", it proves that some historical events are too important, too appalling; for the grand sweep of the historical 'masterpiece': the beloved grandiose gestures of academe. Sometimes, simply, the truth; the appalling truth of the baseness of human nature and its consequences is best encapsulated by the focussed concision of reportage. More tomorrow...

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