“. . . do not look at the shortcomings of anybody; see with the sight of forgiveness. The imperfect eye beholds imperfections.”*
Sense the breeze of love
soothing every beating heart
Connected as one
prompt – BREEZE
My father, the oldest of 5 children, was born in England where his father and pregnant mother fled to from Poland. The story of why and how has died with all my relatives.
No room in my heart for prejudice, Baha’i faith
“THIRTEEN years ago, researchers at the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum began the grim task of documenting all the ghettos, slave labor sites, concentration camps and killing factories that the Nazis set up throughout Europe.”"What they have found so far has shocked even scholars steeped in the history of the Holocaust.”"The researchers have cataloged some
42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe, spanning German-controlled areas from France to Russia and Germany itself, during
Hitler’s reign of brutality from 1933 to 1945.”
“. . . Dr. Megargee said he expected to find perhaps 7,000 Nazi camps and ghettos, based on postwar estimates. But the numbers kept climbing — first to 11,500, then 20,000, then 30,000, and now 42,500.
“The numbers astound: 30,000 slave labor camps; 1,150 Jewish ghettos; 980 concentration camps; 1,000 prisoner-of-war camps; 500 brothels filled with sex slaves; and thousands of other camps used for euthanizing the elderly and infirm, performing forced abortions, “Germanizing” prisoners or transporting victims to killing centers.”
“As Germany invaded and began occupying European neighbors, the use of camps and ghettos was expanded to confine and sometimes kill not only Jews but also homosexuals, Gypsies, Poles, Russians and many other ethnic groups in Eastern Europe. The camps and ghettos varied enormously in their mission, organization and size, depending on the Nazis’ needs, the researchers have found.”
No room in my heart for prejudice, Baha’i faith
42,500 acts of kindness is a start – a tiny, symbolic start,
so that hatred and bigotry may end.
*“Love the creatures for the sake of God and not for themselves. You will never become angry or impatient if you love them for the sake of God. Humanity is not perfect. There are imperfections in every human being, and you will always become unhappy if you look toward the people themselves. But if you look toward God, you will love them and be kind to them, for the world of God is the world of perfection and complete mercy.”
“Therefore, do not look at the shortcomings of anybody; see with the sight of forgiveness. The imperfect eye beholds imperfections. The eye that covers faults looks toward the Creator of souls. He created them, trains and provides for them, endows them with capacity and life, sight and hearing; therefore, they are the signs of His grandeur. You must love and be kind to everybody, care for the poor, protect the weak, heal the sick, teach and educate the ignorant.”
―
Abdu’l-Bahá
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Tags: Abdu’l-Bahá, Baha'i, concentration camps, England, forgiveness, Germany, God, holocaust, Holocaust Museam, Love, Nazi ghettos and camps, Poland
I suppose one must always have hope in the goodness of human beings. Poverty must be eradicated…people tend to behave badly when there is nothing to lose. We have all been bombarded with violence and horror via the media so much so that most are desensitised to any numbers etc. Sit in a movie theatre and watch the faces in the audience in a scene where someone is having their head chopped off…there wont be a flinch…yep we are living with aliens!
The haiku is touching and the story plus the numbers are sad…
Blessings,
Eliz
“Humanity is not perfect”…if we understand the depth of this one line, the world would be a much better place to live.. Thanks Judy….you made my day…
RS
Peace.
words so beautifully strung, that is one exquisite haiku Judith… Nothing can ever erase the horror of the holocaust…
I sense the breeze of love whenever I visit your blog!! Thank you for that breath of loving air!
The numbers make me sad and mad: sad that something like the holocaust could happen in the “modern” world (to say nothing of what has/had been done to native populations in the Americas, Africa and the mid and far East), and mad because genocide (in various forms) continues around the globe.
Let’s start with 42,500 acts of kindness; then start on the millions upon millions of other acts of kindness that cry out to be done to erase the pain, sorrow, agony and grief caused by current day genocides, the “recruitment” of children soldiers, the sex/slave trade, and the many other organized horrors unfortunately, some humans are still capable of.
Imperfect eyes behold imperfections! How true, But to view without prejudice needs patience and practice. It is difficult to develop those eyes.
Beautiful take on breeze. Loved it!
Those numbers are astonishing.