Burgess Owens: “this 60th anniversary observance of the liberation of Auschwitz presents the people of all civilized nations with an…”

“this 60th anniversary observance of the liberation of Auschwitz presents the people of all civilized nations with an opportunity to focus a searing light of exposure on one of the deadliest landmark events of human history. More than 1 million human beings died in this hellish extermination factory which was part of a system that murdered more than 6 million Jews. As often as possible, in every way conceivable, the leaders of the present must be forced to gaze with thorough and undivided attention upon the horror of the Holocaust. The observance of this 60th anniversary is an empty, useless ceremony if it does not arouse massive, worldwide anger, pity, and fear. The anger must be directed not only at Hitler and the SS; but also the anger should be focused on the millions who helped to maintain the poison fog of racism, anti-Semitism, and religious hatred. The pity levels must be raised high to envelop all of the more than 6 million individual souls whose opportunities to breathe and live, to develop their potential and to pursue happiness were so brutally snuffed out. The fear must be shared by us all as we contemplate our unforgivable impotence in the face of other epidemics of genocide that have been allowed since the landmark lesson of the Holocaust. Stalin and his gulags; Pol Pot and his killing fields; the Hutu intelligentsia and their exhortation to ``cut the tall trees'' with machete executions.…”