Vigilance Vs. The United States of Amnesia

Dear Madame:

It was written in permanent marker, in big black letters, on the wall of the Barnes & Noble bathroom:

“The Holocaust Is A Lie”

Lie was underlined three times for emphasis.

While it was somewhat surprising that such ridiculousness was scrawled in a place of books and knowledge accumulation, presumably among the well-read store goers, from me came an immediate counter-reaction.

Not just that the ignorant, manipulatively “informed” show their lack of learning and lack of discernment by such a statement, but that they have to do it in cowardly fashion because they cannot stand the light of open discussion and reasoning.  Or worse, that it’s the hate-branders purposely spreading falsehood for their own twisted and manipulative purposes.

No, my main reaction was as a historian.  Because it is completely illogical for someone to be expected to be shown the least credence or plausibility when attempting to dispute what may be the most well-documented long period event in history, one in which not only endless recorded interviews and footage exist, but survivors of still exist.

I only said it in these blog pages just last September, but it bears repeating:  To paraphrase the great civilizationist historian, Arnold Toynbee, “When the last person who remembers the last terrible war is gone, the next terrible war becomes inevitable.” 

Here’s your challenge, humanity: Break Toynbee’s cycle.  It can be done!

And to you Madame, and all mothers, well wishes to you on this Mother’s Day. 

By the way, I told the B&N staff, and they were going to paint over the false words.  Vigilance!

Here’s also hoping that America and the world gets and stays educated enough to never even consider to believe such falsehoods as what was written.