OPINION:
Never in the recorded history of humankind has there been anything that compares to the atrocities committed by the Nazis from 1940 through 1944. Germany operated 23 concentration camps with up to 1,000 satellite camps that saw more than 6 million Jews (including 1.5 million children) and thousands of Roma exterminated.
While all the deaths are important, the 1.5 million children tears at one’s conscience and sense of decency. With as many victims as there were passing through the camps, massive stockpiles of personal items remained, including shoes, glasses, clothing and jewelry. Only in recent years has the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum started uncovering notes, documents and personal messages left in children’s shoes by desperate mothers trying to leave a record of their children, personal information for posterity and history.
These shoe messages are not isolated or few in number. Literally hundreds of mothers made this effort to leave a legacy for their beloved children. The shoes of Auschwitz are a stark reminder of just how cruel and inhuman we can be to our fellow man. Never again can this be allowed to happen.
JAMES W. ANDERSON
Talladega, Ala.
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