I sat in front of the TV getting quite emotional....tearful in fact. I felt quite silly really as this had happened before and I should have been prepared at least or hardened to this particular scene but no...it effected me yet again much the same as before and my raw emotions just took over. I am talking about the work of that genius film Director Steven Spielberg and his award winning classic film 'Saving Private Ryan'. Its the end scene..remember it? its where the main character of the story James Frances Ryan [Private Ryan] is now a world weary grandfather in his 60s who has traveled to the old battlefields of France with his extended family consisting of his loving wife...sons/daughters and grandchildren in order to pay his respects to his old fallen comrades of decades before. In a way its a gesture of respect and closure for him as he enters his twilight years and to help the younger members of his family understand the huge sacrifices made for them by his generation to ensure their happiness/freedom. Its a very emotive scene as the camera pans in close to his face...eyes that tell a bleak story and tears slowly appear. he chokes on his words as he speaks to the gravestone of his fallen comrade saying that hes tried to lead a good fruitful life and followed his advice from all those years ago in that war torn landscape. His wife who is standing behind him notices his deep upset and moves forward to comfort him...he turns to her and asks her..."have I lead a good life?...tell me I've lead a good life"...etc etc its a very moving scene and translates perfectly the complete horror/waste of war.
Its funny I simply cant watch that film without it ending the same every time with me ie in tears and very shook up. why? I guess because I am a very caring sensitive person allied to a hard shell also. if you were to ask me what was the most shocking event in the 20th Century for me personally I wouldnt quote national disasters that killed thousands of innocent people...nor would I quote deliberate criminal acts of evil....or full scale wars that ripped a generation of healthy youth apart and solved very little etc but I would quote the orchestrated evil of the Holocaust during the 1930s/40s that was dealt to truly innocent men woman and children as the one event that effected me most even though I wasnt born until 5 years after its end and can only rely on history text mostly to understand it. plus of course the horrific film footage recovered and actual witness accounts. The passing of years since that terrible event which adds up to 66 now hasnt even slightly diminished the agonising impact of what happened to me. ones rational mind and sense of incredibility keeps the painful thoughts of it fresh in my head because I dont want to accept civilised human beings could do such an evil thing because of a Political Ideology but....they did without much question. The film 'Saving Private Ryan' relates to and reminds me of that period and its crazy events hence my deep emotions while watching that scene above..that brave good people laid down their lives to rid the world of unadulterated evil Ideology..only fools will will be insensitive toward such a thing.
History is my thing and I do enjoy researching about a lot of it particularly the mayhem of the Second World War..its reasons and causes..its thinking and mechanisms that allowed events to unfold as they did. Armies armed to the teeth and facing one another on the battlefield because of some Political differences is one thing and history books glorify the colorful drama with feelings of National pride and evolution with god on our side tosh...but for a Democratically elected government to brainwash its citizens in an evil racial way against sections of your own community and then declare war on parts of the civilian population leading to their murders in especially constructed murder factories is almost inconceivable to a civilised person..how could that evolve?..happen?...how? because of this real human tragedy that happened I have always been drawn to look for answers about the Holocaust in an attempt to understand somehow. War films always related to this in parts for me..how could it not? hence I have researched it thoroughly over the years and snippets always comes to the surface of what happened to ordinary innocent people caught up in that sad page of history through no fault of their own...every day events like.....
When the German army conquered land in their invasion of Russia in June 1941 during operation Barbarossa they had strict instructions to show no mercy to the civilian population of the villages/towns/cities they over run. that the Peasants were inferior and of the level of animals...that all Jewish families and Communist party supporters were to be shot on sight coldly..men women and children...every building were to be torched as you passed through and if the buildings inhabitants ran out of the burning buildings just shoot them....this became the norm for almost every fighting unit in the field with some exceptions. That whole communities were to be rounded up and killed. In some regions there were even recorded instances of old ex soldiers who Fought for the German army during World War One coming out wearing their old medals to greet the advancing German army only to be beaten and cruelly killed by the troops as they openly mocked their victims. How they killed the children in front of their parents just to maximise the agony aspects of their evil deeds.
In the specially constructed Concentration Camps or death factories scattered alover occupied Europe the regime was of hate and suffering daily. Children were automatically separated from parents as was men from women. The young/strong were put to grueling work on starvation rations of watery vegetable soup that caused almost instant diarrhea and dysentry. Their survival period was a few weeks usually. Children were either killed straight away by lethal injection or medically experimented on...they were all condemned to death anyway so...women were worked to death or served as slaves in the service parts of the camp and the turnover was again high because of the lack of food and beatings.
Even though the camps were always full to over flowing daily trainloads of Jews arrived from all parts of Europe usually 20-40,000 at a time and sometimes twice in a 24 hr period. these unfortunate victims which consisted of whole families of mum/dad with children and grand parents to had already endured months/years of ill treatment and partial starvation in segregated ghetto areas of occupied countries...had just suffered a journey of often days without food/water in cattle trucks to arrive weak and confused/fearful for their families to be herded in their thousands by sadistic guards with vicious dogs and whips to be split up ie woman on one side men on the other. children taken away with the old and crippled/infirm. told they must enter large sheds and strip off in order to take a communal shower and be deloused before going to the camp. to be herded naked and afraid down specially shielded laneways often with fake signs to delude them and played music to end up in large fake shower rooms that held a thousand at a time only to be cruelly gassed. the guards boasted they could clear a train load of 30,000 people from disembarking to to the burning death pits at the rear of the gas chambers ready to be buried or burned etc in 2-3 hours...industrially efficient and impressive if it wasnt for the human victims.
I am reminded of the thousands women awaiting their turn to be showered standing often in freezing weather completely naked half knowing they were about to be killed...standing huddled and shivering in a sea of human flesh and many emptying their bowls on the hard concrete floors because of sheer fear..how some were so desperate they committed suicide by slitting their wrists/necks to end the agony and some helping their grand parents or older children to do the same. I am haunted by the thousands of naked men suffering the same fate naked in long rows who were hurriedly taken before the women to their deaths as the guards feared more resistance hence they treated more brutally with whips snarling dogs who bit their naked flesh as they passed and some guards openly used swords to to wound and increase the fear in the crowd...those who found the strength/courage to resist who were few in number were instantly shot dead on the spot....imagine the noise and confusion of 30-40.000 people being processed at the beginning and two short hours later a deathly silence hung over the whole area...all dead and being buried or burned in pits..piles of human flesh....twisted hurt cold faces...erased from this world...blood to be cleaned away and any clues that this place was busy with human presence...ready for another train load a few hours later...can this thing be real? did it really happen?
I have only touched the surface of facts here..of what took place in a cold blooded efficient industrialised manner. There are enough agonising individual stories that would take a life time to tell.....yes war films remind me of the whole picture of past events of that period. it is important to remember dont you think? we must remember in the hope it will prevent ordinary people in extraordinary situations in the future from not doing the same again..yes it was ordinary people who worked the mechanics of those camps..who worked the trains..who did the admin..who cooked the guards meals..who followed orders without question...we must not forget that! Thank you Steven Spielberg for reminding me. CALLEN
Words of Wisdom......."Only clowns and the empty minded laugh all the time"
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