Today (27th January) is the UK's chosen day for commemorating the events of the Holocaust. This day was chosen because it marks the day when Auchwitz was liberated and shut down.
I decided to hold a minute's silence to contemplate on the senseless genocide of bygone wars... and show my respect for those who suffered and either died or prevailed having suffered terrible indignity or brutality at the hands of evil men.
I also decided on being a little more proactive. What follows is a copy of the text from an email that I sent to the President of Iran - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a man who in recent blogs I have taken issue with over remarks he has made about Israel and the Holocaust:
Dear President Ahmadinejad.
I decided to hold a minute's silence to contemplate on the senseless genocide of bygone wars... and show my respect for those who suffered and either died or prevailed having suffered terrible indignity or brutality at the hands of evil men.
I also decided on being a little more proactive. What follows is a copy of the text from an email that I sent to the President of Iran - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a man who in recent blogs I have taken issue with over remarks he has made about Israel and the Holocaust:
Dear President Ahmadinejad.
I am writing to you to express my deep concern and disdain over your comments in December concerning the Holocaust. I would like you to explain what you mean by describing it as a "myth".
I do not believe you can seriously entertain the idea that 6 million Jews didn't die at the hands of Nazism. That many people do not simply disappear... it is impossible to hide an absence of that magnitude.
I would be interested to know exactly which parts of the Holocaust you class as myth. Would you also take issue with the number of 5 million non Jews who shared the same fate - The Pole's, the Romanian gypsies, the communists, the homosexuals, the Africans and the disabled?
11 million people Jew and gentile alike... were wiped of the planet - that is NO myth. You also need to understand that Adolf Hitler's extremist views would not have ended with the Jews. Simply put, Arabs would have had no more place in Hitler's eugenic nightmare than Jews. He was hell bent on Aryan supremacy. Very few people fit the characteristics he praised. Your people would have suffered... so instead of pouring scorn on the Jews for their suffering, you should instead be praising God that a similar fate did not befall you.
11 million people Jew and gentile alike... were wiped of the planet - that is NO myth. You also need to understand that Adolf Hitler's extremist views would not have ended with the Jews. Simply put, Arabs would have had no more place in Hitler's eugenic nightmare than Jews. He was hell bent on Aryan supremacy. Very few people fit the characteristics he praised. Your people would have suffered... so instead of pouring scorn on the Jews for their suffering, you should instead be praising God that a similar fate did not befall you.
You may think I have an agenda in writing this. I do not. I am no politician, I am no Jew, I am from none of the groups I have listed above. What I can tell you is that today is my country's commemoration of the Holocaust (for ALL sufferers of Holocaust through history), and that as part of my act of respect and remembrance for every man or woman of the human race who has ever died in the wake of such horror - I decided to make a statement for them... for they have no voice of their own. I speak because silence in the face of ignorance is a crime. As Martin Niemoeller said:
"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me--
and there was no one left to speak out for me."
So it does not matter what or who I am... I MUST speak out for those who have suffered because I would want them to speak out for me. You have done the same yourself, during recent tragedies in your own country... so I hope you understand.
I do not speak to you with hatred... but rather with concern and a heartfelt plea for piety and compassion.
I ask that you turn away from your inflammatory statements regarding the Holocaust and the Jews.
Whatever you choose, I pray that God will have compassion on you and that you can grasp how high and wide and deep his love for humanity and you yourself is.
Your sincerely
Nick Payne
Will he read it?
Probably not. (Author's note as at 10th January 2007... obviously not!)
Should that stop me saying it? By no means. I doubt he'll pay the likes of me much heed, but when men say such things they should be held to account and told they are wrong. Not just by politicians... but by the common man. Politicians are duplicitous and almost everything they do is done for men to see. Their agendas are their own. It is more powerful when the ordinary folk rise up to condemn evil. I believe the following quotes are true:
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
"The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." - Albert Einstein
"When good people in any country cease their vigilance and struggle, then evil men prevail." - Pearl S. Buck
"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant." Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
Nick Payne
Will he read it?
Probably not. (Author's note as at 10th January 2007... obviously not!)
Should that stop me saying it? By no means. I doubt he'll pay the likes of me much heed, but when men say such things they should be held to account and told they are wrong. Not just by politicians... but by the common man. Politicians are duplicitous and almost everything they do is done for men to see. Their agendas are their own. It is more powerful when the ordinary folk rise up to condemn evil. I believe the following quotes are true:
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
"The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." - Albert Einstein
"When good people in any country cease their vigilance and struggle, then evil men prevail." - Pearl S. Buck
"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant." Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
If you want to join me in my moment of clarity/madness, the President of Iran can be emailed at the following address: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
No comments:
Post a Comment