{"id":64,"date":"2011-05-01T15:10:32","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T15:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jobshuk.com\/yoni67\/2011\/05\/01\/holocaust-memorial-day-2011-recalling-the-business-of-the-holocaust\/"},"modified":"2011-05-01T15:10:32","modified_gmt":"2011-05-01T15:10:32","slug":"holocaust-memorial-day-2011-recalling-the-business-of-the-holocaust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobshuk.com\/yoni67\/2011\/05\/01\/holocaust-memorial-day-2011-recalling-the-business-of-the-holocaust\/","title":{"rendered":"Holocaust Memorial Day 2011: Recalling the BUSINESS of the Holocaust"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Holocaust Memorial Day 2011:<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Recalling the BUSINESS of the Holocaust<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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May 1st, 2011.<\/font>"Yom HaShoah," Holocaust Memorial Day<\/a> begins here in Israel this evening. Tomorrow, at 10 a.m., as happens every year, air-raid sirens throughout the country will wail for two minutes and citizens will stand in silent respect.<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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This is not another<\/font> blog post to recount the Holocaust. Movies, newsreels, survivor accounts and books can do that far better, more thorougly and with more insight than I.<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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This is a business<\/font> blog, however. And today, as the descendant of many who perished in the ashes, I have decided to look at the BUSINESS angle of the Holocaust. Because, in many ways, it WAS a Business!<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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At its peak, the Nazis murdered 10,000 Jews <\/font><\/strong>a day. It begs the disturbing<\/em> question: what does it take to liquidate that number of human beings in a span of 24 hours? Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow. The next day. The next. My answer…<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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1)<\/font> Brutal Efficiency:<\/font> Men and women who took great pride in a job-well-done. Workers who might have showed up early and left late. Highly-motivated workers determined to perform their dastardly tasks at the highest level possible.<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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2) Logistics:<\/font> Trains running on time. Forcing people from trains to "showers" to crematoria in a swift and orderly fashion. Adolf Hitler actually launched a tirade at rail operators who were bringing troops to the front; they were diverting precious resources from concentration camps.<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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3) Supplies:<\/font> Zyklon-B<\/a>: the poison gas used in the showers. Ovens. Crematoria. Guns. Bullets. Slave-laborers.<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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4) A Business Plan:<\/font> To wipe a people from the face of the earth. Planned and instituted by beasts<\/font><\/em> with names like Hitler, Eichmann<\/a> (later captured, brought to trial and executed in Israel), Goebbels<\/a>, Himmler<\/a> and Heydrich<\/a>.<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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5) Personnel:<\/font> Brutal killers without morals or regard for human life: SS<\/a>. Gestapo<\/a>. Einsatzgruppen<\/a>. And periphery "employees." Train conductors. Mechanical engineers. Architects. Builders. Chemists. Ordinary people?<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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6) Industry:<\/font> A steady supply of trains, gas, bullets, shovels, ovens, etc. All supplied by industry which collaborated with the Nazi regime. IG Farben<\/a>: The chemical\/pharmaceutical company that produced Zyklon-B…yes, I too always believed that pharmaceutical companies produced medicine that healed! Siemens<\/a>, and the list goes on.<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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7) Scale: Massive<\/font><\/em>. Roundups. Transport. Execution pits, concentration camps and extermination camps throughout Nazi-occupied Europe.<\/font><\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

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8) The CEO: <\/font>Adolf Hitler might have been the incarnation of EVIL…but…can anyone doubt his oratory skills? His charismatic and hypnotic nature? He played the race-card to a "t," utilizing massive German unemployment, horrendous economic conditions and the vision of restoring Germany to its grandeur. All he needed was a scape-goat. He found it in the Jews. And with that, his obedient minions put into effect the extermination of a people.<\/font><\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Yes, during that dark time in world history, a mere six decades ago, BUSINESS came together perhaps like no other business before or since.<\/font><\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

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The plan was diabolical. The efficiency was ruthless. It was all carried out on an INDUSTRIAL-SCALE. And the results were…<\/font><\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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UNSPEAKABLE!<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Business can be a force for good.<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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And for EVIL!<\/font><\/em><\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

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PHOTO: Yonatan (Jonathan) Maisel: 2006, Patrolling in Jerusalem, Israel. Six Million brothers and sisters: "Never Forget!"<\/em><\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

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Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

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Dear Readers, due to several recent anti-Semitic comments and e-mails, I’m closing this post to comments. I don’t like doing it. Sorry.<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

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