Showing posts with label Holocaust. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holocaust. Show all posts

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Israeli student admits stealing items from Auschwitz for art project; Guardian, July 19, 2017

Peter Beaumont, Guardian; Israeli student admits stealing items from Auschwitz for art project

"“I felt it was something I had to do. Millions of people were murdered based on the moral laws of a certain country, under a certain regime. And if these are the laws, I can go there and act according to my own laws. The statement I’m making here is that laws are determined by humans, and that morality is something that changes from time to time and from culture to culture.

“These are the things I want to deal with. I am a third generation to the Holocaust, but I’m not saying I’m allowed to do it because my grandfather was in Auschwitz. I’m simply asking the questions. I’m concerned that after all the survivors are gone, the Holocaust will turn into a myth, something that cannot be perceived.”

Her academic supervisor, Israel prize-winning artist Michal Na’aman, appeared to go some way towards justifying Bides’s action in the same publication."

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Obama hails Elie Wiesel as 'conscience of the world' amid leaders' tributes; Guardian, 7/3/16

Alan Yuhas, Guardian; Obama hails Elie Wiesel as 'conscience of the world' amid leaders' tributes:
"Barack Obama led tributes to the Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, who died on Saturday at the age of 87, saying the author had been “a living memorial” and a clear voice against injustice in the world.
“Elie Wiesel was one of the great moral voices of our time, and in many ways, the conscience of the world.” Obama said. “He raised his voice, not just against antisemitism but against hatred, bigotry and intolerance in all its forms.”
In 2009, Obama traveled with Wiesel and German chancellor Angela Merkel to the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald.
“After we walked together among the barbed wire and guard towers of Buchenwald where he was held as a teenager and where his father perished,” Obama said, “Elie spoke words I’ve never forgotten: ‘Memory has become a sacred duty of all people of goodwill.’
“Upholding that sacred duty was the purpose of Elie’s life.”"