[Leica] Fwd: Re: IMG: Czech Holocaust memorial

[Douglas Barry]

Bizarre that the lessons of history are so quickly forgotten. Listening 
to those sad sacks shouting slogans like "Jews will not replace us" in 
VA and getting away with it, makes my blood boil. In Ireland, we use the 
"Prohibition to Inciting Hatred Act 1989" and shouting slogans like that 
would have the shouters in jail before they could blink.

I'm amazed at all this keruffle over controversial statues which, in my 
opinion, are works of art - for better or for worse - and should not be 
destroyed, but rather moved to less prominent places such as museums or 
sculpture gardens where the public still has access. Proper education 
about the secession seems to be missing in US education, and needs to be 
implemented too.

I'm living in Ireland where, between 1845 and 1848, over a million 
people died due to the Great Hunger, and more than a million had to 
emigrate. Queen Victoria "The Famine Queen" was on the English throne as 
Irish incomes were hived off by absentee - and present - landlords 
creating a situation where the ordinary Irish had to live on one crop - 
the potato - as all the income from the main crops had to be surrendered 
as rent. When potato blight struck, the Irish had no food, or income, 
and millions starved, and died, or else had to emigrate, but most of you 
probably know all this...

However, all over Ireland, there are statues to British imperialists 
like Victoria, and a couple of miles away from me, in Dun Laoghaire, a 
commemorative fountain, erected to her in 1900 by the loyal burghers of 
Dun Laoghaire, was restored around ten years ago after being damaged by 
IRA elements in the 1980s. There also used to be a large statue of 
Victoria in front of Leinster House - the seat of the Dail (Irish 
Parliament) and many people wanted it destroyed, despite it being by a 
notable artist. In the 30s, we removed both it, and its plinth, and put 
them into storage. However, fifty years later, we gave it away to the 
Australian government who requested it to adorn the Queen Victoria 
building in Sydney.

So, all over Ireland we have statues, obelisks, and other public 
memorabilia to the echoes of oppressive British rule, and yet we live 
with our history. Despite being the grand nephew of the first man to 
kill someone and be killed in the 1916 Easter Rising against British 
rule, and also having a grandfather and another grand-uncle who were 
Michael Collins's deep cover intelligence agents, I still support the 
retention of these historical items as otherwise history loses a 
tangible reality.

However, in my opinion, the things that should be removed in the US, and 
banned, are confederate flags, and stickers, as they really do cause 
anger and may lead to a breach of the peace. Anything used as a hate 
symbol - be it confederate flags or Nazi style swastika, etc. - should 
be banned in sensible countries, but the US allows this provocative 
behaviour under the lame excuse of freedom of speech. However, nobody in 
the US is seemingly brave enough to propose a law, or a constitutional 
amendment, banning the flying of inflammatory flags, so this sort of 
crap is going to prevail for years to come because of cowardly inaction.

Apologies for the rant, but the US seems suddenly a weird and backward 
place to us, viewing it from afar through the media prism.
Douglas


On 16/08/2017 07:57, Peter Klein wrote:
> Perhaps it is no coincidence that I came to these pictures today, just 
> after events in Charlottesville, Virginia. Here are three photographs 
> from the Pinkas Synagogue in Prague, which is both a museum and 
> Holocaust memorial as well as a working synagogue.
>
> Part of the memorial roster of 78,000 Czech Jews murdered by the 
> Nazis. After the Soviet invasion that crushed the 1968 Prague Spring, 
> the exhibit was closed. It was not reopened until the fall of 
> Communism in 1995.
> <https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563@N04/36433007342/in/dateposted-public/> 
>
>
> Detail of the above:
> <https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563@N04/36433007102/in/dateposted-public/> 
>
>
> Children's drawings from the Terezin (Theresienstadt) transit camp, 
> which is about 35 km from Prague.
> <https://www.flickr.com/photos/24844563@N04/36433007102/in/dateposted-public/> 
>
>
> --Peter
>
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