You are looking at an authentic horrible artifact from WW2. This extremely scarce armband is rare because those who wore it suffered in ways no human should be exposed to ….. and because the armband was then eliminated with its bearer.
My guess is not one IDF soldier knows what this armband represents. And if they did, I don’t believe as many of them would be committing the atrocities that they are committing. I honestly believe the spirits of those who wore this armband would stop them.
A bone-crushing machine used by Sonderkommando to grind the bones of victims after their bodies were burned in the Janowska camp, August 1944.
By nature concentration camps led to the development of some of the most heinous jobs devised by man. So extremely heinous that H. Himmler was concerned too many of his precious S.S. camp guards would develop debilitating mental conditions. So he and his staff created a system where prisoners would guard other prisoners (KAPO) and prisoners would be forced to perform gruesome tasks (Sundercommando).
The gruesome tasks undertaken by Sundercommando included clearing the gas chambers of bodies and transporting the body to the ovens or burn site. Other tasks included burying the dead in mass graves or later in the war digging up the mass graves and burning the bodies so as to destroy evidence.
This photograph of the cremation of corpses at Aushwitz-Birkenau was taken clandestinely by prisoners in the Sonderkommando, Poland, 1944.
The Sudercommando were forced to wear the armbands so that the Nazi Guards could keep track of them as they worked and to track the amount of time a prisoner was performing the tasks of Sundercommando. In the case of those who emptied the gas chambers their life span was only a few weeks before they were murdered. Those digging up graves, burning bodies and crushing bones were murdered after a few months. It was important to eliminate the witnesses of Nazi crimes.
How, then, can the IDF soldiers perpetrate the despicable acts against Palestinians that were perpetrated upon their own people? How can IDF soldiers tarnish the memories of all the Jews that died and/or were forced to participate in the extermination of their people? How can IDF soldiers justify engaging in a genocidal massacre not unlike the genocidal massacre their people witnessed in the 1930’s and 1940’s?
The reasons for acts of crime against humanity are not simple to define and there surely isn’t just one answer. Have these IDF soldiers been influenced to believe all Palestinians are evil non-humans and need to be murdered? Simple racism? Group psychopathy? The fear of being rejected by their own people? Military training that demands following orders? The animosity between Zionists and Jews and so there is no clear correlation between this genocide and the holocaust? Ignorance around the history of the holocaust and specifically KAPO and Sundercommando? That the evil spiritual beast residing in the Nazi’s transported itself to the Zionist Jews knowing the Nazi reign was completed?
As a psychologist and a Yuwipi Man I believe it is combinations of all the above. AND I believe that if the complete and graphic history of the holocaus twas taught to all children … in a way that burned itself into their being (their very identity) …. that much of this violence, hatred, racism and war could be mitigated. But we won’t do it. And, you DO know why. Because the filthy rich, greedy, violent people in charge of this country NEED war. Israel NEEDS war in order to remain relevant and rich. It is all about soul sickness and evil and the utter disregard for the ‘other’.
So this will never end. And many of us fear that KAPO’s and Sundercommando’s will be part of our future life experience if Donald Trump is made president. There will be camps for the homeless, for immigrants, for LGBTQ, for ‘heathens’ …. for people of color. For those who fight back. We could be entering a nightmare.
Look deeply at that arm band. Please. Feel its vibration. Consider what it stands for …who wore it and why. That ‘surviving piece of cloth’ ’ serves as a reminder of the awful period in human history that could be realized once again.
Lord, Tunkasila, Allah, Siva, Kali Ma, Mother Nature, Buddha have mercy on us and protect us in these challenging times. And bless the souls of those forced to wear that arm band not all that long ago.
Doesn’t sound silly at all. Love is at the root of all Indigenous healing. Loving all things is respecting all things. But we are so lost as a species. When I was in junior high my best friend brought out a photo album filled with black and white pics of the camps. In the war his dad was an army photographer and he was there to take many of the pics seen in books. He was pretty messed up. But like you I never forgot that day and war to me is just so utterly stupid. Gaza has shaken me to the core. I write every day even though not many reading. It is my therapy. Thank you for commenting and take care
TY