Posted by
Steve on Wednesday, August 24, 2011 1:17:49 PM
I watched the Glenn Beck Journey to Restoring Courage movie last night. It was a moving experience because of the pictures of the people from WW II. I was particularly struck by the comments by the Rabbi from Poland about the number of Polish people who helped save people from the Nazi’s. Glenn Beck had made comments that there were so few. He has repeated that statement many times. There were only just over 6,000 out of a population of 35 million people. That is a small number by any measure, except one. That one was described by the Rabbi.
The Rabbi said that he was surprised the number was so high. The Nazi government went out of their way to make sure there were few who would help. They said that anyone who helped a Jew in any way would be killed. They really meant that rule, because they killed a lot of people who helped Jews and were discovered. The Nazi’s also said that if you helped the Jews, they would also kill all of your family. They also did a lot of that during their time ruling in Poland. With those rules and penalties, it is a wonder that there were so many people who helped the Jews escape or hide. It took incredible courage to help a Jew under Nazi occupation. That is why those 6000+ are memorialized in Israel today.
After I watched the video from Glenn Beck, I saw an article on Yahoo News that asked the question, why is Glenn Beck holding the Restoring Courage rally in Israel? I figured it was probably a hit piece, but it did get my curiosity up, so I read it. As I expected, it was a hit piece on Glenn Beck and those closest to the Restoring Courage Rally in Israel. The premise of the article was that if you had criticized a Jew for any reason, you must be an anti-Semite. If you were an anti-Semite, how could you support Israel? They used George Soros and Edward Bernays as examples of Jews that Glenn Beck had criticized. They deserved to be criticized. They are part of the reason we are where we are today. If they had been true to their Jewish roots, instead of trying to implement a New World Order we would all be better off. To argue that if you criticize one Jew that you are an anti-Semite is pretty lame. No group is without their black sheep. The bad ones in any group need to be called on it in order to validate the individuality of each person in the group. The arguments against Glenn Beck and David Barton were laughable at best. We also have to remember that Glenn Beck and David Barton are humans themselves. They have the same ability we all have to make mistakes. If we have to throw everyone overboard who has made a mistake, the boat would be empty.
With Glenn and Tanya at Auschwitz was a member of the Israeli Knesset. He brought with him a list of his wife’s family who were killed there. That made the visit particularly emotional for him. He was having a hard time with the fact that he was seeing what his wife’s family saw during their last days. That really hit him hard emotionally. When they got to the gas chambers, he went in and out in less time that it took me to write this sentence. He said it was too much for him to take seeing the actual gas chamber.
You could see that the experience at Auschwitz touched Glenn and Tanya emotionally. The pictures of them just after visiting Auschwitz showed how much impact it had. They appeared emotionally drained after that experience. I am sure that is the same kind of experience that all of us would feel if we were in that same situation.