Nothing upsets me more than people who think the Holocaust never happened, or that it was not a big deal. Recently, three Austrian teenagers were found guilty of a Nazi camp attack they committed last year. "The teenagers, none of whom were previously known to police, fired compressed air rifles, injuring two visitors, made Nazi-style salutes and shouted slogans like "Heil Hitler" and "Sieg Heil," according to witnesses." This story is found on Nine News, a European news station. (http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8174304) They did this at a commemoration service at the previous concentration camp of Ebensee. This is outrageous, because these people survived this horrible tradgedy, then had to deal with being shot at by immature, young adults. These particular youths are sentenced up to six months in prison for the crimes they committed. This sort of thing completely upsets me not only because that this is still a problem since the Holocaust, but also because I'm Jewish. Millions of people of my bloodline and faith died for no reason at all, and this is a fact. I have family members who died in this mass extermination, so it really hits home when anyone trys to deny it. There are too many millions of pictures, stories, and first hand accounts of what happened for it to be fake, or also for anyone to deny that it happened. Holocaust deniers are usually anti-semite because they hate Jews, so to further spread their hate, they will say the Holocaust never happened.
Dante never really addresses the particular hate for a race of people, or the denial of something. On a related note, Nazi's would be located in Circle Seven, Round One, because they were violent against fellow man. Holocaust deniers on the other hand, do not fit into any of the circles of Hell. This is unique of our modern society; to deny something that actually happened. The circle of Hell that would most closely relate to Holocaust deniers would be Circle Five (anger) because by denying the Holocaust, they are showing hate and anger towards the Jewish people. If Dante had known about the Holocaust deniers, he would have included another circle of Hell; those who deny the absolute truth. Dante would agree with me about grouping them closely to Circle Five, and to punish these people. In the Inferno, Circle Seven contains Blasphemers and Dante punishes them because they deny the truth of God; so why not punish an entire group of people who deny truth?
The song, Never Again, by Disturbed fit my topic. This song calls out Holocaust deniers by the lyrics,
"You dare to tell me that there never was a Holocaust?
You think that history will leave the memory lost?" These lyrics are true; history itself will never forget the Holocaust, and no one will ever forget what happened to those people because of it's impact on millions of lives.
Song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfPgE7hApgw
Lyrics -http://www.elyrics.net/read/d/disturbed-lyrics/never-again-lyrics.html
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