The Wargamer

Holocaust Remembrance Day

The Wargamer is a community dedicated to the study and enjoyment of games based on historical and militarily significant events. In the last few years, a tremendous amount of time and energy has gone into creating a huge number of PC and board games based on World War II. Quality World War II-based games, whether FPS, RTS, or hex-based strategy, have been extremely popular. One may speculate on the reasons for this. Perhaps it is due to the fact that many of those who lived through and participated in the Second World War are passing on. Naturally, the audience that appreciates these types of games has a tendency not just to remember but recreate and even attempt to relive specific events. In so doing they, in some small way, honor the memory of all who had participated in the war. 

Almost any reason for remembrance can be a positive one, whether it is from pure interest in the subject matter, all the way across the spectrum to applying past lessons in an attempt to practically solve current problems. One way or another, everyone who considers himself a member of the wargaming community feels that the act of remembering and honoring the past is important on some level. And through this study and honoring of the past, all members of this community know that history has its dark side. 

History is filled with horrible examples of man’s inhumanity to man: warfare itself is one of the most obvious examples. Even in the vast historical record of international conflict, there are events so ghastly that jaded students of history must stop reading for a moment to attempt to comprehend. War is brutal, yes, but there are some events that should never be forgotten, if for no other reason than the sheer degree of their terror. Past ages have seen their share of horrors. But the 20th century has two distinguishing features: technological progress and a massive population boom. The result has been an ability to commit atrocities of stunning proportion. The Armenian genocide at the close of the First World War; the Ukrainian famine of the 1930s; the firebombing of Dresden and Tokyo during the Second World War; the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1950s and 1960s; the “killing fields” in Pol Pot’s Cambodia in the 1970s; the gassing of Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s; the slaughter of over a million Tutsis in Rwanda and the Fall of Srebrenica, Bosnia in the 1990s…after studying even one of these events, the most jaded historian could be forgiven if he concluded that there is no hope left for humanity. 

Simultaneously, numbers on a printed page tend to numb readers to the true nature of the events being described. Modern popular media tends not to take notice of events unless they are of a massive scale, such as the body counts of the Sudanese civil war or the death toll of the south Asian tsunami. Even with the help of televised pictures broadcasting report after report of the extent of suffering it is difficult to comprehend the weight of such events, past or present. 

So it is important to slow down when attempting to digest material such as this. To even attempt to understand the sheer scale of many historical tragedies, context, focus, and sensitivity are paramount, as is the discipline to avoid a comparision of one horrific event to another. Each one of the examples named above existed in its own place and time in history, and attempting to declare the “worst of the worst” is not only in bad taste but is fundamentally impossible. With all of this said, the Holocaust tests all of us when attempting to come to even a basic understanding of it. It is an historical event that tests the bounds of both logic and compassion. The magnitude of the Holocaust is truly unbelievable, even from today’s number-obsessed media perspective. That is why we, as a fundamentally historically-based community, must not only attempt to understand it, but also make certain that it is never forgotten.

Twelve Million

Twelve million. The number on its own is too large to comprehend in any significant way. What really is twelve million? I personally cannot say…it is insurmountable for me to truly understand it. Other things are easier for me to understand: the warmth of a hug from my wife, the joy of telling old stories over and over again with my friends, the wonder of a walk in the woods near my house, the beauty of the mountains in winter and the beach in summer. Each of these things can be understood for the simple human happiness they can produce. To try and comprehend the deliberate killing of twelve million people who were, at their center, the same as any of us, is perhaps most understandable in the context of the things they, as individuals, would never again enjoy, no matter what they were. 

Many people are familiar with the number six million, which is to me an equally useless number. Again, I just cannot fathom that many of anything, never mind six million people. But it should be understood that six million was the number of Jewish people killed in concentration camps during World War II. In addition to those six million victims another six million people were also murdered, whether they were labeled as Catholics, mentally disabled, political dissenters, Gypsies, or a host of other types didn’t seem to matter. All were deemed undesirable by the Nazi state. Many see the Holocaust as a crime against Jews, but in reality it was a crime against people, period. 

Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th, 2005) is honored internationally through a host of state-sponsored events. The date this year marks the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Internationally, many observers will mark the day with religious ceremonies, moments of silence, and a variety of other memorials. The Jewish Museum in New York City and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum will have particularly detailed remembrance programs. 

However, what may be the most notable, but also the most overlooked detail of Holocaust Remembrance Day, is something very simple. As ubiquitous as these observations may be, many people will not notice it or even be aware of them. It is easily ignored. But it can also easily be observed. It can be found whether you’re participating in an official event at a museum or a house of worship, or if you are simply remembering that January 27th this year is an important day. It is the silence of the dead, those who never again got a chance to hug their wives, talk with old friends, or walk in the woods. And the simple fact of remembrance, even on the tiniest scale, ensures that none of those silenced died in vain.

About the Author

Lloyd Sabin has recently earned his MA in History from Rutgers University and is presently searching for a permanent teaching position in the Lower Hudson Valley of New York State. He is currently a freelance slave of the publishing industry working as a desktop layout editor, and longs to liberate himself. For additional amusement, he is also constantly trying to keep his wife from sealing up his computer room with bricks, rooting for the Yankees and Jets, hiking, biking and reading as many books, on any number of historically based topics that he can get his grubby mitts on. He is currently playing: Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots, Rome: Total War, Pirates! and the Thief franchise.