My theme for my 2015 A to Z Challenge came from my
Disaster Crimes series. Disasters are a theme in each story, so it got me
thinking about all the disasters that occur from natural disasters to manmade
disasters.
Today’s
disaster is...
KILLINGS
KILLINGS
(massacres) most certainly are a disaster...a manmade
disaster.
The Holocaust
is the largest genocide of the 20th century, which claimed the lives of approximately 6 million Jews at the hands of the Nazi regime led by Adolf
Hitler. Gypsies, Poles, communists, homosexuals, Soviet POWs, and the mentally and
physically disabled were also victims, bringing the total number of causalities
to about 11 million.
FACT: Out
of those numbers, 1 million made up Jewish children.
Concentration camps were set up following the start of
World War II in 1939. Horrifying acts occurred in these camps including starvation,
diseases, mass shootings and gas chamber deaths.
FACT:
Anne Frank died a few weeks before British troops liberated the camp where she
was held with her sister, Margot, who died a few days before Anne.
Pearl
Harbor is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. On December
7, 1941 the
Imperial Japanese Navy conducted an airstrike against the United States naval base
located at Pearl Harbor. The attack, which damaged all eight of the U.S. Navy
battleships in the harbor (sinking four of them), destroyed 188 U.S. aircrafts,
and killed over 2,400 Americans, led the United States to enter World War II.
RIP to all who lost their lives in these horrifying
events, and the ones not mentioned here. (9/11, school shootings (Virginia
Tech, Sandy Hook), Salem Witch Trials, Vietnam War, etc.)
SHARE:
Your prayers and messages to those who lost their lives.
K: Killings
 |
| I'm a member of Tremp's Troops! |
Man-made kind are the most horrific. It always astonishes me what we're capable of.
ReplyDeleteI agree.
DeleteMassacres really are the worst kind of man-made disasters. Whatever the reason, no matter how it's justified the eradication of a huge number of people because of their differences in race, religion, orientation, etc is the most horrible thing you can do as a human being. You can never wash away the blood (Lady Macbeth)
ReplyDeleteIt is the most horrific of man-made disasters. It's terrible that we are capable of things like this.
DeleteManmade disasters are definitely the worst kind as at least natural ones are not within our control. You have to ask why and how these events happened, and continue to happen. Human beings are all equal, no matter their race or religion (which are also divisions created by ourselves, of course).
ReplyDeleteI agree. Why these things happen and continue to do so is heartbreaking. Like you said, we are all equal. None of us should do things like this to each other.
DeleteI did a research paper on how the holocaust affected not non-Jews (specifically, Catholics, but I also wrote on others). It was super interesting to write and research for, because usually you only hear about what Hitler did to the Jews. I think everyone should be equally remembered, you know? Hitler just hated everybody, not just the Jews.
ReplyDeleteThe Holocaust affected so many people. More than we are initially taught in school.
DeleteThe angle the memorial photo was shot at makes it look even more powerful than I remember it. Sad events. Great post.
ReplyDeleteVery sad events.
DeleteIt's difficult to comprehend how anyone could have thought this was good - the mind boggles. I hope all those who suffered went on to a better place.
ReplyDeleteTasha
Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)
The mind does boggles. It just horrible. Of these massacres then and now. Just horrible.
DeleteYep, man made are surely the worst and throughout history man has done far more than mother nature.
ReplyDeleteMan has done so much worse than mother nature.
DeleteI had read about the numbers of Jews who lost their lives, but didn't realize how many others did as well. It's terrifying to think what one person's influence can lead to.
ReplyDeleteIt is terrifying. And yet, it's starting to happen again. But hopefully it won't lead to anything like this.
DeleteThat picture of the bookcase is so haunting. This is the most upsetting type of disaster of all since people made the choice to do these horrible acts.
ReplyDeleteIt is the most upsetting. I'll never be able to understand how anyone could do these things.
DeleteDon't forget Mao Zedong, the the founding father of Communist China. Death toll from him is up to 78 million. That number is incomprehensible to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there's a lot that could be included but these were the two that popped into my head first for this post.
DeleteThat death toll is unthinkable!
Eleven million people. That is hard to fathom.
ReplyDeleteIt is.
DeleteIt makes my heart heavy. It's so important to remember our history to help prevent this from happening again.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Christine.
DeleteMy heart and prayers go to anyone who gets killed in this way , also their relations. Sometimes life is so cruel, how people can treat others this way I could never fathom.
ReplyDeleteAn excellent post though horriffic to read.
Yvonne.
Thanks for that, Yvonne. People can sure be cruel to each other and why? For what reason? It's horrible.
DeleteMan... sometimes good ideas are not, sad for those who had to endure or even give their lives.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, Jeremy!
DeleteYou touched me on several levels here today, Fey. Let us not forgot. And may we at some point heed the lessons of the past and turn our efforts to peace and love instead of war and hate. Thanks for this one.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I could touch you with this post, C Lee.
DeleteSo sad that man can hate others so much they kill them. My prayer is that one day the world will be a place of peace and love no matter what country a person lives in, who they are, or what they believe.
ReplyDeleteIt is terribly sad and unthinkable.
DeleteThat's a beautiful prayer, Beverly. I share it.
It's interesting to note that many Christians who refused to serve in the Nazi party were also sent to concentration camps. Several were actually given the option of simply signing a piece of paper renouncing their faith. Most never signed and were sent to the camps.
ReplyDeleteAs for other atrocities, I have a few refugee friends who come to America from Myanmar where an ethnic cleansing is taking place. Some of the stories they've shared with me are so horrific, I don't know how they deal with them. Families on the run from the army having to leave infants behind so the army wouldn't hear the cries and find them. If the army found your hidden camp and you were forced to flee, you never returned because the army places booby traps. Many who have ventured back have lost limbs or even their lives. One young friend was telling me she watched one of her own family members shot in front of her. Just tragic.
Leave infants behind? That is heartbreaking! But I know that the cries of an infant can get people hiding for their lives caught. Just the thought though is horrible.
DeleteA few years ago we went to a war cemetery in Italy, was very moving, even for the children who were all primary school age at the time x
ReplyDeleteThat would be very moving.
DeleteSuch a tragic "disaster". Genocide of any kind should never happen.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the 2015 A to Z Challenge!
A to Z Co-Host S. L. Hennessy
http://pensuasion.blogspot.com
I agree 100%!
DeleteInteresting topic. It is beyond me how someone could willingly take so many innocent lives. Seems to happen more and more these days.
ReplyDeleteSean at His and Her Hobbies.
I don't understand it either. It is happening more these days. I fear it'll only get worse.
DeleteI have a dear friend who just returned from Poland where her grandfather was honored for bringing the Katyn Forrest massacre to the attention of the world. Over 20,000 of Poland's finest leaders, soldiers and academics. It was Stalin's own personal killing field.
ReplyDeleteYou don't want to think that can happen, but it may be happening now. And I know we'll see it again. People never learn.
Wow! Your friend's grandfather sounds like a heroic man.
DeleteI have a feeling what's happening now will only get worse too.
Chrys, you have a most unique theme. I will certainly be back to read more. I am visiting from the challenge and am dealing with mystery writing terms. Sounds like we have compatible interests. Sharon www.samwriteaway.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting, Sharon!
DeleteMass killings highlight mankind's inhumanity to his fellow man. When a mentally deficient or morally deficient person gets into power, they will use any excuse to justify their actions. Genghis Khan also killed many in his search for power. It's that 'I want to rule the world' gene that seems to infect these types.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great theme, Chrys that gets us thinking. . .
There were many leaders who killed countless people because they wanted power and had a corrupt idea in their head about who they thought should live and who was more superior to others.
DeleteHorrific and sickening chapter of history. Hitler took over because many world leaders were afraid of him. He was a bully and a monster. The events leading up to his take down are fascinating. The Diary Of Anne Frank was one of my favorite books. I read it when I was 12 and it made a huge impact on me. What can we learn from these events? That's the question and unfortunately, we don't learn very quickly (repeated school, mass shootings). Great awareness post, Chrys.
ReplyDeleteHitler surely was a bully and a monster.
DeleteWhen I was little, I felt a deep kinship to Anne Frank. As if we were sisters...or even one.
Some people might wonder why I so often choose to write and read about dark periods of human history like the Shoah, the Armenian Genocide, and GULAG, but it's not because I delight in suffering and death. I'm drawn to these macabre settings because of the stories of hope, love, survival, and healing in spite of everything. The most haunting book I've ever read, Isabella: From Auschwitz to Freedom (originally published in two volumes, Fragments of Isabella and Saving the Fragments), actually has very little details about the horrors and indignities experienced by Isabella and her sisters. It's mostly about the love shared by these four (later, sadly, three) surviving sisters, and how they survived for one another, because of one another.
ReplyDeleteThe hope, love, and survival are the most important parts of these horrific events and there are many stories of it. These stories are what we need to read. What you're doing is awesome!
DeleteYou would have hoped that we would have learned from past mistakes made about killing people, especially mass quantity of people like the Jewish people during WW2 and every other killing that has taken place, but sadly we haven't and I'm sure we never will (we as a world, collectively, not individually). My heart and prayers always go out to those affected by such tragedy and the families left behind.
ReplyDeletebetty
Certain groups will never learn not to do these horrific acts because they delight in making others suffer.
DeleteThe Pearl Harbor Memorial is very haunting. It breaks my heart to hear parts of the world doubt the holocaust. There's so many places in the world where life has little value.
ReplyDeleteHow could anyone doubt the Holocaust? It was such a traumatic time in our history that still impacts us today.
DeleteWhat's saddest to me about these events is that we never seem to learn from them. Even today, genocides and wars continue. As a species, we seem determined to wipe each other out.
ReplyDeleteIt's depressing.
We (as a whole) won't learn from these events because there are certain groups that love to kill people they view as different or less superior. It is very depressing.
DeleteR.I.P. indeed to those who have died through this kind of senseless killing :(
ReplyDeleteSophie
Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles
FB3X
Wittegen Press
Thanks for your comment/prayer, Sophie!
DeleteWhile sad, I find the Holocaust and other atrocities like that fascinating. I think what gets me is the how. How can people justify it?
ReplyDelete~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
Member of C. Lee's Muffin Commando Squad
Story Dam
Patricia Lynne, Indie Author
I don't know how anyone can justify acts like this.
DeleteI have never been able to understand how the heart of man can be sooooo desperately wicked, enough to killing a fellow man, no matter the cause.
ReplyDeleteNor have I.
DeleteIt still surprises me that human beings can act so savagely towards one another.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but we all live so differently that it makes it easy for some, I guess.
DeleteHi Chrys - Killings is such an appalling K .. and it is still ... it seems we have worse going on now .. so desperate - Hilary
ReplyDeleteK was a difficult for me to come up with, and I thought killings were a disaster that have touched us time and time again.
DeleteSo sad. All of it. School shootings make me especially upset because no child should ever choose between safety and learning... Looks like we both picked sad topics today :)
ReplyDelete@TarkabarkaHolgy from
Multicolored Diary - Epics from A to Z
MopDog - 26 Ways to Die in Medieval Hungary
With our themes, a sad topic here and there is expected, huh?
DeleteThere is no justification for evil - ever. Especially in the name of religion. Sad or tragic as it may be, the topic of unending manslaughter should never be swept under the rug as if it will go away because clearly, it doesn't.
ReplyDeleteNope, and it never will.
DeleteThis makes me sad. So sad. I hate children being hurt. May God's justice prevail. Hitler and every villain will not smile once He is through with them.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Mueller
AtoZ 2015
My Little Pony
I couldn't say it better myself, Elizabeth.
DeleteMy mom is German and lived through the war (she even met Hitler and wished she had a bomb on her). If anyone did not show they "loved" Hitler, they were taken too. My mom recalled giving her sandwich to a man that was behind a fence. My Oma (her mom) would tell her fast, fast) and so my mom gave him the sandwich. My mom said it was a factory because she was only 13 or 14 at the time. She would go there daily and bring food. One day he did not show up and never did after. She knew better than to question. My Opa (grandfather) was labelled a "communist" by a neighbour because he openly talked negatively about Hitler and he was taken away to a concentration camp. When the war ended and the Russians march in, a neighbour said my Opa was a fascist and he was taken away to a Russian Camp. He was in and out of these Gulags until 1950. When he was released..again... my mom snuck him out of East Germany into the West. My Oma had to say he left with some blonde and file divorce papers since she was being closely watched. About 6 months later, my Uncle snuck her out. No matter what-horrible and disgusting history that should never be forgotten
ReplyDeleteThat is an incredible story! Thank you for sharing it with me! Your mom, Oma, and Opa are amazing people. I would like to hug all them. Even you. So I'm sending virtual hugs.
DeleteOh there was also the massacre of approximately 7 million Ukrainians by forced starvation by Stalin in 1932-only 1 year!!
ReplyDeleteThat's horrible! There's probably more than I know that could have been mentioned. I welcome comments to bring awareness to those events as you commented about this one. Thanks!
DeleteUgh, killings...the other disasters are sad, but killing is beyond tragic.
ReplyDeleteIt is beyond tragic.
DeleteYou post brings tears...so sad! History is often times very disturbing!
ReplyDeleteSorry for the tears, Donna!
DeleteA disturbing topic, but one history has seen far too many times. Incredible the cruelty some people are capable of ...
ReplyDeleteIncredible and questionable. Why?
Deletegreat post!! Holocaust remembrance day is coming up soon! it always amazes me that not only did the Holocaust happen (NEVER AGAIN) but that so many people still have such violent hatred toward my religion, and toward any religion for that matter...you'd think in 70 yrs we'd have learned to stop all this hate. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI know. It's Friday, I believe.
DeleteI wish we would stop all this hate and stop putting down other religions.
Killings are the worst sort of disasters. With nature, you can't help but throw your hands in the air and call it fate, but killings are just wrong and consciously done. One of my favorite novels, Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy, does a great job of digging deep into WWII and the holocaust. So sad, but definitely important to remember. School shootings are so sad, too, and much too prevalent.
ReplyDeleteKillings are devastating because we do them to each other.
DeleteI just watched a documentary on one of the survivors of one of the worst school shootings in history and he was talking about survivor's guilt. None of us can imagine the impact something like that has on those who survive it. I think we should pray for them, as well.
ReplyDeleteSo many who go through these tragic suffer with survivor's guilt for the rest of their lives. You're right! We should pray for them too.
DeleteChrys, I'm a huge WWII buff. Often though its hard to digest all the pain and suffering that happened during that short period of time.
ReplyDeleteI like to learn about it too, but you're right that it's hard to digest the things you read.
DeleteHi, Chrys,
ReplyDeleteThere is no excuse for killings such as these. Sadly prejudice, jealousy, and mental illness are key triggers for murder. It is all part of the being human, but we must remember these atrocities so the future generations will not repeat these injustices.....
I agree. You said it very well, Michael.
DeleteI include Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Peace had been made but the the boys wanted to test the new toys and took advantage. True story.
ReplyDeleteThose are two very tragic events.
DeleteSo hard seeing these. Currently reading about nazi camps and it's mind boggling.
ReplyDeleteI agree.
DeleteThese are sad, horrific events in history. I hope history never repeats itself.
ReplyDeleteI hope so too, Medeia.
DeleteReminds me of Leeloo on The Fifth Element. "Everything you create, you use to destroy."
ReplyDeleteI love Leeloo on The Fifth Element! :D
DeleteI hope all those souls rest, especially the children's, and that the survivors are wise enough not to let such tragedies happen.
ReplyDeleteAmen!
DeleteThe absolute worst of humanity, and the fact that it's still happening all over the world disturbs more than I can express. Thank God there's so much good to keep our faith in humanity alive.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you said, Beverly.
Delete