January 27th - International Holocaust Remebrance Day

HOW I OBSERVED THIS DAY

It feels wholly inappropriate to use words like "celebrate" when talking about such a horrid piece of history, but it's important to keep the memory alive so that such a travesty will hopefully be avoided in the future. The History Channel fortunately had an appropriate documentary on today about the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps and the progression of the Holocaust as a whole. I watched that with a grim appreciation of what was knowingly inflicted upon the people forced to intern there. If I had it, or if it had been OnDemand, I would also have watched "Twelve Angry Men" which is a fantastic dramatic representation of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.

HOW OTHERS MIGHT OBSERVE THE DAY

Reading through The Diary of Anne Frank or watching a dramatic adaptation of it would be a strong option, as would watching the aforementioned "Twelve Angry Men", or Spielberg's opus "Schindler's List." Another more recent film example that I have read nothing but praise for (though I cannot personally recommend it as I have not seen it myself) is "The Boy in Striped Pajamas" which is about an unlikely friendship between a kid in a concentration camp and the son of the camp's overseer. The History Channel has also aired many documentaries on the subject (as well as the rest of WWII) over the years, and there were probably more of them on today than the one I viewed. If you are a parent or a teacher, talk to your kids about what happened and why it should be kept from happening again at all costs. Simply put, no matter what you do, don't let people forget it, it happened and it is something we as a planet should keep from ever even starting to happen again. Shame that we're letting it happen in Tibet right now... and we let Pol. Pott do it for so long, and Apartheid took twenty years to take down...

People disgust me sometimes with what they'll look the other way on. I'm not going to fucking censor myself, what's going on in Tibet should not fucking be happening! There are literally women being hung up by their wrists and having cattle prods shoved up their vaginas!
Fuck you China!

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Go educate yourself on this one, read as much as you can on the subject and realize why it should never happen again. I'm not going to do your job today, that's the whole point of the day, really, to educate or re-educate yourself on the subject.

UNOFFICIAL THEME SONG

"Red Sector A" by Rush. It was written to simulate some of the horror of Concentration Camps and much of the lyrical content was inspired by Geddy Lee's own mother's experiences living in one as a child. It is haunting and is the song that best helps keep the somber mood of the day in my opinion. Even if you don't like Geddy Lee's voice, go look up the lyrics.

FOOTNOTES

Other Holocaust related memorials today include:
-Holocaust Remembrance Day in the U.K.
-Gedenktag für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus (Commemoration Day for the Victims of National Socialism) in Germany
-Giorno della Memoria (Memorial Day) in Italy
-Auschwitzdag (Auschwitz Day) in Denmark

All other footnotes will go in their own post.