An absolutely must read article on the England players' visit to Auschwitz. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...e-Rooney-vows-it-will-never-be-forgotten.html Shows a lot of these players aren't the stupid and arrogant people they are often branded as. It shows they are still human.
I read that earlier this a.m. It's a really good article, isn't it? I must admit I had reservations about the players going there. I just didn't quite trust them to not let themselves (and the country) down. However, it seems as though it was a very powerful trip for them and they were truly humbled by it. Not quite so sure about the video at the bottom of the page of the Schindler trip where, sadly, one or two seem a little less than interested. I hope I'm doing them a great disservice in that.
Auschwitz is somewhere I need to go to before I pop my cloggs, despite being somewhat sensitive to the events of the 2nd WW there is something inside me that keeps telling me I must go there to see it for real, as well as seeing Jerusalem’s Garden of the Righteous and the shrine to Oskar Schindler. Had I been among that England group I am near certain I would be in bits as just about anything related to the holocaust has quite an effect on me, even Schindlers list will have me in tears (no matter how often i watch it!). I did not see any damp eyes in that footage but hopefully most, if not all, have at least a lump in their throat while they were there.
Schindler's list is a fantastic film. Although my family has no real association with ww2 (one g/parent was a doctor so stayed in norfolk throughout the war and moved out to France shortly after and my other g/father was a vicar) I still find it harrowing, shocking and unbelievable.
I am the same wonky - I have absolutely no direct connection with any part of the Holocaust, but the effect it has on me is somewhat profound. I was regarded as being more than a little insensitive until that film, it changed my outlook on so many other aspects of life too!
There's a Dan Walker blog here http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/danwalker/2012/05/avram_grants_story_is_an.html about his trip with Avram Grant to Auschwitz. If you haven't already read it, it's worth a read.
I'm part Jewish although I don't have any connection to anybody Jewish anymore as my father died a long time ago. Yet I hate the Germans as a race for what they did. I have no forgiveness and cannot forget that a whole nation, despite all the uniforms in the hedgerows when they started losing, they all relished Hitler while they were winning. And there are still many of them alive today. Its in them and they are so ****ing embarrassed by it even now that modern Germans say "it was the Nazis". Bollocks, it was the German race and may you all ****in suffer until the Sun dies. As far as I'm concerned, they are all Kuntz.
I would really like to go and visit it, I think everyone should try to do it as I imagine it would be a massively humbling experience Not quite the same as a visit, but there was a very good three part documentary on the beeb about three years ago about the place. At least this England team visit makes up for the roben island cock up in south Africa