museum of tolerance

I went to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles on Friday. We saw how genocide and mass murder continues today in places like the Sudan. However, the thing that was most striking about the Holocaust was the efficiency and planning. 6 million Jews, along with 9 million Gypsies, Communists, homosexuals, and other targeted groups were systematically murdered in only a few years! You look at the blueprints of the “Final Solution,” the intricate details, and you forget that these were scientists, mathematicians, military and political leaders, sitting down and strategizing for the sole purpose of calculating how to murder the most people, quickly and cheaply.

The Holocaust was not a side issue for Nazi Germany. It was the dominate factor. They were using trains to ship the victims to the camps that could have been used to ship troops for the war effort. Military failure on the Nazi’s part was at least partially due to their obsession to murder as many Jews, and others they considered unworthy, as possible. It really took away a lot of energy, focus, and resources from the military campaign.

Just recently, plans have been revealed that showed the Nazis were ready to go in to Palestine and work with Arab collaborators and kill off the Jews who lived there. Only defeat of Rommel’s Army stopped those plans from moving forward.

As I am writing this I am realizing this was only a little over 60 years ago! These evil events are still fresh events in the overall minutes and hours of history. This was not some ancient primitive culture going on a warpath. This was a sophisticated, brilliant, death machine made up of human parts.

Stop and think about all of this today.