# This made me so sad.



## Ronni (Dec 9, 2021)




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## dseag2 (Dec 9, 2021)

Very sad.  We visited the Holocaust Museum in Dallas recently.  If you REALLY want to feel sad...


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## Aunt Bea (Dec 10, 2021)

_"Each ring a lifetime commitment cut short. Each a monument to indescribable cruelty." - Dan Polak_


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## Packerjohn (Dec 10, 2021)

If you really want to learn what happened to the Jews in WWII; visit Auschwitz Concentration camp.  It is located very near Krakow, in south Poland.  I have visited this place twice and will not go back.  There are people who don't believe in the mass extermination of the Jewish race.  I suppose their thinking is along the line of the "Flat Earth Society."  They should go there.  If you can't go there; you can always read the following:

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/auschwitz


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## Tish (Dec 10, 2021)

So very sad.


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## PamfromTx (Dec 10, 2021)

Heartbreaking.


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## OneEyedDiva (Dec 11, 2021)

The degree of evil that it took to do this to other humans is just unfathomable to me!


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## Pecos (Dec 11, 2021)

OneEyedDiva said:


> The degree of evil that it took to do this to other humans is just unfathomable to me!


It is simply staggering, and still people often want to think that humanity has progressed beyond this level of pure evil. Sadly, we have not.


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## Pepper (Dec 11, 2021)

Among the very first memories I have, below 2 years old, were our neighbors, friends & relatives crying, wailing, weeping, even screaming and ripping clothes and some self-harm, about the Holocaust.  I have been wondering lately how my life would have been different in a more joyous situation.  My first realization was that there are people who want me dead.  As a very young child it was quite bewildering.


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## Pinky (Dec 11, 2021)

Pepper said:


> Among the very first memories I have, below 2 years old, were our neighbors, friends & relatives crying, wailing, weeping, even screaming and ripping clothes and some self-harm, about the Holocaust.  I have been wondering lately how my life would have been different in a more joyous situation.  My first realization was that there are people who want me dead.  As a very young child it was quite bewildering.


I can relate .. @Pepper


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## Ruth n Jersey (Dec 11, 2021)

I had read about the Holocaust and was deeply saddened by all that I had learned but one day shortly after I had graduated from nursing school  and started my first job an old doctor came in to visit his patients. 
I went with him and noticed that he had numbers on the inside of his wrist. I guess he saw that I had seen them and later on back at the nurses station he told us first hand what those concentration camps were like. 
We were in tears as he told us his story. I don't think any of us will ever forget his words. 
There are no books that can adequately describe those horrific events that he told us about first hand.


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## feywon (Dec 11, 2021)

Pepper said:


> Among the very first memories I have, below 2 years old, were our neighbors, friends & relatives crying, wailing, weeping, even screaming and ripping clothes and some self-harm, about the Holocaust.  I have been wondering lately how my life would have been different in a more joyous situation.  My first realization was that there are people who want me dead.  As a very young child it was quite bewildering.


When i was in middle school i knew a girl whose family had changed their name (from Goldberg to Gold) because  of how pervasive and powerful the  Bund movement was here in the USA.  It was pro-fascist, anti-Semitic and actually delayed our entry into WWII. 

Many Americans are fond of blaming 'those awful Germans'
while unaware or in denial  about our own evils.  We are after all human, and some of us are capable of rationalizing atrocities.


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## ohioboy (Dec 11, 2021)

The well known Poet, who I like, Carolyn Forche, wrote a poem titled Theresienstadt, can't find the text online, but even with the absent reader, it speaks for itself.


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## Irwin (Dec 11, 2021)

Ronni said:


> View attachment 198278


Not to make light of Nazi atrocities, but I don't think those are actually wedding rings since they're all exactly the same size and shape. My guess is they were used for manufacturing.


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## Purwell (Dec 11, 2021)

Irwin said:


> Not to make light of Nazi atrocities, but I don't think those are actually wedding rings since they're all exactly the same size and shape. My guess is they were used for manufacturing.


Wedding rings tend to be the same shape and I am very interested as to how you can judge size from that photo. Just what sort of manufacture are you talking about?


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## Pecos (Dec 11, 2021)

Pepper said:


> Among the very first memories I have, below 2 years old, were our neighbors, friends & relatives crying, wailing, weeping, even screaming and ripping clothes and some self-harm, about the Holocaust.  I have been wondering lately how my life would have been different in a more joyous situation.  My first realization was that there are people who want me dead.  As a very young child it was quite bewildering.


I am so very sorry that you have had to deal with something like this. No child should have to is bear this.


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## Irwin (Dec 11, 2021)

Purwell said:


> Wedding rings tend to be the same shape and I am very interested as to how you can judge size from that photo. Just what sort of manufacture are you talking about?


Men's wedding bands tend to be wider than what's in that photo and women's wedding rings almost always have a mount for a gem. They look more like grommets.


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## Pepper (Dec 11, 2021)

Pecos said:


> I am so very sorry that you have had to deal with something like this. No child should have to is bear this.


Sometimes things can't be hidden from a child.  The grief was too intense, and let's face it, in the "old" days most adults were unaware how much even a very young child can understand.


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## Autumn72 (Mar 27, 2022)

OneEyedDiva said:


> The degree of evil that it took to do this to other humans is just unfathomable to me!


Isn't this a repeat with Russia.


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## caroln (Mar 27, 2022)

Irwin said:


> Not to make light of Nazi atrocities, but I don't think those are actually wedding rings since they're all exactly the same size and shape. My guess is they were used for manufacturing.


I was thinking the same thing.  When I looked at the picture my first thought was, how strange...did everyone wear the exact same ring back then?  I don't know, maybe they did?


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## SmoothSeas (Mar 27, 2022)

PamfromTx said:


> Heartbreaking.



beyond heartbreaking...  really, there are no words...


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## Lavinia (Mar 27, 2022)

Irwin said:


> Not to make light of Nazi atrocities, but I don't think those are actually wedding rings since they're all exactly the same size and shape. My guess is they were used for manufacturing.


You think this was staged for propaganda purposes? It's possible as surely the rings and gold teeth were intended to be melted down, not kept as souvenirs.


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## Geezer Garage (Mar 27, 2022)

I enlarged the photo, and you can see wider bands among the narrow ones. Have seen similar pics of thousands of shoes. It is amazing the depths that humans can sink to.


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## feywon (Mar 27, 2022)

Lavinia said:


> You think this was staged for propaganda purposes? It's possible as surely the rings and gold teeth were intended to be melted down, not kept as souvenirs.


Determing the validity might be easier if we could seen who that is handling the rings. The photo is dated 1945, when the camps were being liberated.  Things get melted down in batches usually. This could have been a batch they hadn't gotten to yet.

Tho yes it could be another way to send the message about the extent of the horrors home.  i know that Ike instructed a photographer to take lots of photos, because as he said "There will be those who will deny this all happened."


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## jujube (Mar 27, 2022)

Snopes.com states that the picture is genuine and that those are rings.  

Traditionally, Jewish wedding bands were simple circlets of gold or silver, with no gemstones.  Only the brides received rings.  It was not customary for grooms to receive rings.  

By the time that people reached the concentration camps, they would have sold or had taken from them anything of real value, such as heavy rings or rings with gemstones.  What would be left would be the simple bands.  That's what you are seeing.  

The Nazis helped hang themselves by their obsessive need to photograph the camps and the activities.  The leaders felt that all this would be "greatly admired" in the future, so they wanted lots of proof of what they had done.  Fortunately, it allowed the Allies to more accurately prosecute those who were responsible for the atrocities as there was much proof of what had happened.  

I pray we have learned our lessons well......


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## Knight (Mar 27, 2022)

Autumn72 said:


> Isn't this a repeat with Russia.


May be off topic but here goes.

Atrocity for me does not have to mean quantity. For me the men, women & children killed in the Ukraine due to Putin are as much an atrocity as when Hitler decided war was the way to get what he wanted. 

For sure it is difficult to be seeing from the outside the ongoing death of people both military & civilian due to one man. It's no secret that helping without becoming directly involved is delicate. It looks like the best to hope for now is that the defenders of the Ukraine will be successful on their own.


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## feywon (Mar 27, 2022)

@jujube said "I pray we have learned our lessons well...."  

I don't see as much evidence of lessons learned as i would hope, tho i do see some humans behaving in ways that give me hope.


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## Colleen (Mar 27, 2022)

It upsets me that there are people (politicians, mostly) that say this is fake and it never happened...and what's even WORSE, there are a lot of people that believe them. After the war, there were many Germans that didn't believe their "beloved Furor" would do such a thing until they were personally taken to the concentration camps and saw first hand the horror. 

People sure are gullible and easily brainwashed, aren't they? Our world is getting worse all the time. I'd like to believe that we've learned a lesson, but I don't think so.


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## Lavinia (Mar 27, 2022)

Knight said:


> May be off topic but here goes.
> 
> Atrocity for me does not have to mean quantity. For me the men, women & children killed in the Ukraine due to Putin are as much an atrocity as when Hitler decided war was the way to get what he wanted.
> 
> For sure it is difficult to be seeing from the outside the ongoing death of people both military & civilian due to one man. It's no secret that helping without becoming directly involved is delicate. It looks like the best to hope for now is that the defenders of the Ukraine will be successful on their own.


Yes, Putin seems so intent on getting his own way that he is prepared to kill all Ukrainians, whoever they are. It's the same as a lover saying 'If I can't have you, nobody will'....and committing murder.


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## Ronni (Mar 27, 2022)

Irwin said:


> Men's wedding bands tend to be wider than what's in that photo and women's wedding rings almost always have a mount for a gem. They look more like grommets.


Back then women hardly ever had gems in their wedding bands. Engagement rings traditionally had a diamond, but most wedding bands were plain unadorned bands.

I love diamonds!! and as a young child my Mum was always astounded that I could describe in detail the jewelry her lady friends wore, especially the diamonds which were often part of the wedding sets they wore on their fingers.

 I relate that anecdote, only because I was very observant of the rings, and I can say with some accuracy that none ot the women I observed had gems in their wedding bands, which was often on its own. Even the occasional diamond engagement ring I saw was always accompanied by a plain wedding band, more often gold rather than platinum.


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## feywon (Mar 27, 2022)

Colleen said:


> It upsets me that there are people (politicians, mostly) that say this is fake and it never happened...and what's even WORSE, there are a lot of people that believe them. After the war, there were many Germans that didn't believe their "beloved Furor" would do such a thing until they were personally taken to the concentration camps and saw first hand the horror.
> 
> People sure are gullible and easily brainwashed, aren't they? Our world is getting worse all the time. I'd like to believe that we've learned a lesson, but I don't think so.


Can't recall the title but some decades ago i read a book that was basically interviews  Boomer Generation Germans about the difficulty getting their elders to open up about all that, tho they themselves learned the raw facts in school.


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## Autumn72 (Mar 27, 2022)

Colleen said:


> It upsets me that there are people (politicians, mostly) that say this is fake and it never happened...and what's even WORSE, there are a lot of people that believe them. After the war, there were many Germans that didn't believe their "beloved Furor" would do such a thing until they were personally taken to the concentration camps and saw first hand the horror.
> 
> People sure are gullible and easily brainwashed, aren't they? Our world is getting worse all the time. I'd like to believe that we've learned a lesson, but I don't think so.


What lesson if it happens so Hitler (Putin)
Threatens missiles to the USA, yet we let it go to stop this bs in the start. 
Should we watch now the children cry mother on fire while still alive.
And no one will stand up to the short guy as Hilter was too. I feel someone needs to replace him immediately.
Communism is not ok.


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## Sassycakes (Mar 27, 2022)




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