Barack Obama to miss ceremony marking the liberation of Auschwitz

superbeets · Jan 26, 2015

US president faces stiff Republican criticism for not attending 70th anniversary of death camp’s liberation

Barack Obama will not be attending the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and will be meeting King Salman of Saudi Arabia instead. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque /Reuters

World leaders will gather in Poland on Tuesday to attend the ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The nine-person US delegation, meanwhile, will be headed by treasury secretary Jack Lew – the fifth person in the presidential line of succession.

superbeets · Jan 26, 2015

A group of visitors hold an Israeli flag in front of the gate of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, January 26. (photo credit:REPRODUCTION)

superbeets · Jan 26, 2015

KRAKOW – Holocaust survivors from around the world concentrated in the Polish city of Krakow on Monday in anticipation of a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in nearby Oswiecim, in what will possibly be the last such gathering of the rapidly ageing former prisoners.

SheriffJoe · Jan 26, 2015

"I’m going to tell you something and it’s going to be uncomfortable. I don’t care how many wealthy Jews Obama surrounds himself with, I don’t care how many wealthy Jews contribute to his campaign. This man has all the signals of an anti-Semite and I’m not going to take that word back. I believe this in my heart and my soul. It’s not about Israel, it’s about what’s in Israel." - Mark Levin "The Great One"

superbeets · Jan 26, 2015

superbeets · Jan 26, 2015

More than one million people were killed at Auschwitz in Poland duringWorld War Two. The majority were Jews and the former extermination camp is the world's biggest Jewish cemetery.

The site was also the death place for many people who did not fit into the Nazis' view of their world. Poles, lesbians, homosexuals and the disabled were amongst those also killed here.

Many of the concentration camps set up by the Nazis in World War Two were razed to the ground, but Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated before it was completely destroyed. Now it's a museum.

Survivors will lay wreaths and light candles at the so-called Death Wall at Block 11 on January 27th to mark 70 years since the camp's liberation, and remember those who never left.

The forbidding railway entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945

superbeets · Jan 26, 2015

Over one and a half million people were killed at Auschwitz, including women and children

The infamous sign, made by a prisoner, was erected by the Nazis after the Auschwitz barracks were converted into a labour camp to house Polish resistance fighters in 1940. Auschwitz was later expanded into a vast death

superbeets · Jan 26, 2015

Acebb · Jan 27, 2015

Why would he show up?

"The future does not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam."

superbeets · Jan 27, 2015

[h=1]The high street haunted by mass murder: Chilling then and now pictures of the town next to Auschwitz where death will forever hang in the air[/h]

Nazis built their most infamous death camp in the Polish town of Oswiecim
More than 8,000 of Oswiecim's 12,000 residents were Jewish in 1939
But none remained by 1945, and the town's population had fallen to 2,000
Images show the town under Nazi rule - and those same places today
Pet shop worker now lives in camp commander's Rudolf Hoess' home
Says he has never felt ashamed as it is 'a Polish house, not a Nazi house'

A harrowing image from 1941 shows the moment the Jewish population of a small town in southern Poland is rounded up by Nazis and sent to their deaths.
Other pictures show flags emblazoned with Swastikas flying from banks and outside churches, while those who stayed in the town recall the 'disgusting glow' on the horizon, and the fear which kept the residents hiding behind closed windows.
Because, while the small town of Oswiecim is now a quiet, rural place, during the Second World War it lay in the shadows of the crematorium at Auschwitz, and death will forever linger in the air of this place.

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Harrowing: Oswiecim - called 'Auschwitz' by the Germans - was home to 8,000 Jewish residents before the war; in 1941 they were rounded up by the Nazis. Pictured: Lining up in the high street

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Quiet: By the end of the war, the town in the shadow of the death camp had not one Jewish resident. Pictured: The same high street in the sleepy town today, according to the guide

Today, the buildings which once held such horror have become part of the everyday fabric of the town: annexes of the camp are apartment blocks, there is no sign of the checkpoints, and the Nazi flags are long gone.
But those who lived in the town during the Second World War still remember what it was like to live so close to the Nazi death camp.
Bogumila, who did not give her surname, and grew up in the Polish town, recalled: 'Everyone sat in their homes in silence, windows shut as tightly as possible.
'Of course people knew what was going on. Every now and again, my mother and I would walk toward the camp, and see the disgusting glow on the horizon. Most of them did nothing, because they were scared.'
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superbeets · Jan 27, 2015

Bozena Szczepanska, 88, who was just 12 when the Nazis invaded, said: 'It's difficult to forget because the memory of death is all around us, on the streets, in the buildings.
'People were forced out, others including my parents were shot. They were brutal, evil times.'
Before the war, Oswiecim had a population of 12,000, just over 8,000 of whom were Jewish.
By 1945, the entire Jewish population had gone and only 2,000 Poles remained.
Consumed as part of Nazi Germany in 1939, the town was renamed and work began on transforming the local army barracks into the biggest killing machine in history.
By the time it was liberated six years later, an estimated 1.5million people had been exterminated in its gas chambers.

Residents: Rudolf Hoess, the camp commander, pictured here with Dr. Josef Mengele, lived in the house which is now home to pet shop worker Pawel Jurczak, and his English teacher wife Sylwia (pictured right)

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Occupation: The town was consumed as part of Nazi Germany in 1939, and work soon began transforming the local army barracks into the biggest killing machine in history

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Changes: Today, the soldiers who used to cross this bridge are long gone - but the sense of death will always linger

superbeets · Jan 27, 2015

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Occupation: The town was consumed as part of Nazi Germany in 1939, and work soon began transforming the local army barracks into the biggest killing machine in history

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Then and now: Soldiers walk over the bridge during the Second World War, and today

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Changes: Today, the soldiers who used to cross this bridge are long gone - but the sense of death will always linger

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Opulent: The grand hotel which once stood in the town has been demolished

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Dark past: The hotel pictured during the war no longer stands in the town, replaced with a modern building

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Plain: Today, a far blander building stands in its place, with pictures of American screen siren Marilyn Monroe in the windows

superbeets · Jan 27, 2015

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Strict rule: Nazi checkpoints were, for six years, part of daily life for the remaining residents of Oswiecim

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No sign: But today it is hard to imagine Nazi soldiers standing here, checking passes

superbeets · Jan 27, 2015

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Mass murder: Oswiecim train station - through which the millions of Jews destined for the death camp passed

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Demolished: Today, the building so many must have seen has been replaced with this brightly coloured station

superbeets · Jan 27, 2015

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Control: Nazi flags used to adorn the buildings of Oswiecim, reminding residents they were no longer under the control of the Polish government

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Peaceful: Today, the church in Oswiecim has survived - but the flags are long forgotten

superbeets · Jan 27, 2015

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Symbols: The town's bank during the Second World War, with Nazi flags hanging from the windows

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Everyday: Now the Polish flag flutters above Bank Pekao - but the building is largely unchanged

superbeets · Jan 27, 2015

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Death camp: Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Poland, pictured in 1945 - the month it was liberated by Russian troops

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Survivors: A picture showing some of those who survived Auschwitz, was which liberated 70 years ago today

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Starving: Children showing the numbers tattooed onto their arms after they were liberated from Auschwitz in 1945

ScottL · Jan 27, 2015

There are many sick world leaders and millions of mentally deranged people hoping to repeat this atrocity. A good time for a reminder:
“To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last — but eat you he will.” — Ronald Reagan