BERLIN — Of all the upsetting images broadcast around the world as a violent mob overran the United States Capitol in Washington, the one that particularly distressed Dr. Eva Umlauf, 78, a pediatrician and psychotherapist who survived Auschwitz as a toddler, was of a bearded man wearing a black hoodie emblazoned with “Camp Auschwitz.”“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Dr. Umlauf said. “It really broke a taboo. I never would have believed that was possible from Americans.”That image made its rounds through social media and was pointed out in newspapers from Britain to Germany to Poland as an example of who was in the mob that rampaged through the Capitol on Wednesday, and what they thought about a place considered by many as a symbol of a low point for humanity. It had particular resonance as anti-Semitism and far-right nationalism are on the rise worldwide. And for people who survived the Nazi death camp like Dr. Umlauf, there was added pain with the realization that later generations may not have learned the lessons of the Holocaust.

Source: International New York Times January 08, 2021 20:38 UTC