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As the granddaughter of Auschwitz survivors and great-granddaughter and grandniece of several non-survivors, this news is most unwelcome. The U.S. government supposedly received information that Germany planned to execute and eliminate millions of people and yet considered it a "low priority?"
Unfortunately, this is not really news. My grandmother, an Auschwitz survivor, is active in survivor groups and spends a good deal of time giving lectures on the Holocaust, mostly to students and military personnel. When I have questions about what happened, she's the one I turn to, though she only began talking about her experiences over the last 10 years or so. Naturally, Grandma Lida has very strong opinions regarding what President Roosevelt could and should have done during the early years of the war, before Hitler began what's known as The Final Solution. My grandmother, her mother and her siblings were removed from their homes and taken to Auschwitz in 1944, a full two years after the U.S. apparently received word of Hitler's plans. It's incredibly sad and infuriating to think of what could have been (yet was not) done to put an end to the atrocities that occurred between U.S. awareness in 1942 and liberation in 1945.
Adding to that, the U.S. apparently formed covert relationships with Nazi criminals after the war. Hmm... not all that different from the Bush family sharing milk and cookies with the Saudis after September 11, is it now? I suppose some things truly, sadly never change.
Rest in peace, Nick Berg.
Posted by ayelet at May 14, 2004 10:17 AMI wasn't able to get the NY Times link because I'm not a registered subscriber, but the news of the extent of the U.S. relationship with Nazi germany, both before and after the war, is not news to me, the conspiracy hobbyist. It's only a matter of time before half of the conspiracy "theories" out there get proven as conspiracy "facts". I mean, the technology to create missiles and for NASA to get rockets out of our atmosphere and into space came from where? That's right, Nazi scientists.
btw: Although I dable in the paranoid arts, I am not a believer in any Jewish conspracy to take over the world. I believe that the Jews have been historically scapegoated as a people for centuries, and as a result the jewish people have learned how to stick together and show solidarity. This is what upsets most anti-Semites-- that a race of people can be so protective of their culture due to the threats made upon it over the years.
Posted by: James at May 14, 2004 12:07 PM