Denial Of Holocaust Sure Sign Its Repetition Remains Possibility - US World War II Veteran

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2022) The denial of the Holocaust in different parts of the world, fueled for various reasons, may create the possibility for the tragedy to be repeated in the future, US World War II veteran Frank Cohn told Sputnik.

"Although the Holocaust would seem to represent a prohibition for mankind to never again be involved in such murderous acts, the denial of its existence by so many is a sure sign that a repetition remains a possibility," Cohn, 96, said on Thursday.

January 27 marks the Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day in 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi occupied Poland. Auschwitz was the largest of the Nazi concentration camps where 1.4 million people died - 1.1 million of them were Jews - and became one of the main symbols of the Holocaust. In 1947, a museum was built on the Auschwitz site that UNESCO added on its World Heritage List in 1979.

"An economic downturn can threaten the laying of blame again on Jews or on some other specified group and acts to eradicate the alleged perpetrators may again come into action," Cohn said.

Cohn said he was born in 1925 in a Jewish family in Germany. After the Nazis came to the power in the 1930s, he faced outright discrimination together with other Jews.

Decades later, Cohn said he considers many of the developments at that time that saved his life to be miracles despite the fact that at the time the situation seemed hopeless.

"I will say that I am among the luckiest people to be still alive. It did not start well, but all that seemed to be misfortunes turned into saving events," Cohn said.

The problems began when Cohn's father lost his store after the Nazis started picketing it to put pressure on consumers not to purchase products from Jews.

"We thought that this was a great misfortune - but it wasn't. Had he kept the store, it would have been an anchor and we would not have left Germany (for the United States) when we did," Cohen said.

Cohn said his journey to the United States turned out to be another miracle story when early troubles eventually became blessings. His father was the only one able to flew out of Germany and could not communicate with the family.

When the Nazi secret police Gestapo came to inquire about him in Germany, he decided to remain in the United States.

"Next, my mother was able to get a visitors visa even though my father was already in the United States, which was a sure sign that she would be a refugee and not a visitor, but without computers this was not noticed," Cohn said.

Cohn said his mother was forced to bribe a US Consulate employee to add him on her visa.

"The greatest miracle was the timing of our arrival in the United States. We arrived in New York on October 30, 1938 and ten days later, on November 9, 1938 was Crystal Night, a catastrophic event for the Jews in Germany. However, it empowered President (Franklin) Roosevelt to issue an Executive Order which precluded forcing anyone to return to Germany, something which had threatened us. The Executive Order saved us," Cohn said.

At the end of World War II, Cohn said he returned to Germany as a US soldier and participated�in the historical meeting with the US and Soviet troops at the Elbe River in April of 1945. Cohn also said he liberated one concentration camp but never entered the premises.

Cohns said his mother asked him to go to Berlin and seek his sister.

"I had a chance to go to Berlin to deliver some classified documents and checked with the Red Cross. Their lists revealed that she had been deported to Theresienstadt and hence to Auschwitz, where she obviously was killed," he said. "It was not until I returned to the United States in May 1946 that I found out about the millions killed in concentration camps and that 11 of my extended family members had died in that fashion."

Asked if a Holocaust can occur again, Cohn pointed out to human right abuses on racial basis in different countries, including in China and Myanmar.

"It seems that the world has not learned and some of our citizens have also not," he said. "education seems to be the only possible tool to change the situation and we obviously we have not yet found the right formula. I hope we find it!"

The Holocaust, or the Shoah, is the genocide of European Jews by Nazi Germany and its satellite states from the late 1930s until 1945 that resulted in the death of around six million Jews.