The above picture was took at Ivangorod, Ukraine in 1942. A woman is attempting to protect a child with her own body just before they are fired on with rifles at close range. The photo was mailed from the Eastern Front to Germany and intercepted at a Warsaw post office by a member of the Polish resistance collecting documentation on Nazi war crime. This photo is now becoming my Windows XP Wallpaper. It never fails to bring sorrow to my heart. It reminds me to the thing my friend once said many years ago before I got married. I was 27 and during a conversation I asked him how much he loves his children. He instantly answered "if it comes to me or my baby girl standing in front of a moving truck, I would take her place without even thinking". Now that I'm a dad myself, I totally get it.
Another pictures which struck sorrow to my heart are pictures of children taken before they're gassed to death in Auschwitz concentration camp. These children were seen here walking, sitting or simply looking around no doubt puzzled by what was happening. Some of them probably laughing and singing with other children. Yet all the children you see here are dead. Less than 24 hours after these pictures were taken, these little children met their fate in a dark room, choking, coughing and crying in pain and misery for God know how long before they fall sprawling on the floor.
To see the complete Auschwitz Album, please visit http://www1.yadvashem.org/exhibitions/album_auschwitz/index.html
The most horrifying thing about seeing pictures like this is knowing that such indiscriminate killings like this still happens today. Rwanda, Laos, Sudan, Palestine, Iraq, Ethiopia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and more than a dozen other countries have engaged in the mass slaughter of civilians since the end of World War II showing that despite concerns about denials, many have learned the lessons of Hitler’s genocide across the world. Africa, the most war torn continent on the planet is currently in the beginning stages of multiple genocides. In Afghanistan alone, more than half of the casualties were women and children. On March 1st, NATO helicopters killed 9 Afghan boys, and injured one. This occurred without any warning signals as the children were targeted “one after another”. Aged seven to nine years old, the boys were from poor families, and were collecting firewood in the mountains. This is once again an attack on the young children of Kunar. How is it that NATO soldiers, again, confused children for insurgents, and this time by gunfire? The Ashkenazis Jews, supposedly a descendants of those who suffered German's holocaust, are now the one who now performing genocide, not on the Germans but on the Palestinians. Sometimes I wonder whether their ancestors who died in German's gas chamber would approve the killing done by their grandchildren today. One of my friend used to joke that the reason why Auschwitz isn't amongst the most popular tourism spot for modern Jews is because they know they would be possessed or slapped by the ghosts of Auschwitz whom are ashamed of what the Israelites are doing today. The most shameful thing the Israelites have done so far is justifying their genocide on the Palestinians by deploying once again their silver bullet - the holocaust story. Therefore in order to justify the Israeli air strikes on civilan population, Rabbi Israel Zoberman of Temple Beth Chaverim simply resorts to the holocaust story: "We can not afford not to have a Jewish state. Israel is determined to fight with all that it takes to survive. The Jewish people can not have another holocaust... I think that this time, Israel has decided to make a difference. It's not going to do it halfway. Because you just postpone evil." (WAVY-TV 10, 29 Dec 2008) Iya lah tu..
The war also affected the surviving children. When you factor in the lifelong damage this war is causing for thousands of the surviving children, I can’t imagine a single argument that would justify inflicting this kind of psychological pain on anyone.
Imagine having your child forced to watch snuff movie in the internet (movie depicting actual killing footage). Your children will start having anxiety problems , suffer from depression and have problems learning in school. Your child might have recurring nightmares and wet his/her beds. Iraqi children show similar symptoms not unlike children in other war zones such as Lebanon, Sudan and the Palestinian territories. In a World Health Organization survey of 600 children ages 3 to 10 in Baghdad last year, 47 percent said they had been exposed to a major traumatic event over the past two years. Of this group, 14 percent showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. In a second study of 1,090 adolescents in the northern city of Mosul, 30 percent showed symptoms of the disorder.
War is an everyday reality for millions of children. They are killed, disabled or orphaned by civil war, guerrilla insurgency, or ethnic cleansing. They become refugees or displaced persons, often separated from their families. Many die or suffer from starvation, malnutrition, or lack of medical care.
I pray to God everynight that my children will be spared from the upheaval that is to come.
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