Mod is asking for understanding regarding the existence of Auschwitz camp, but I'm getting banned?

Here’s a quick rundown of my recent run-in with the moderator Mr. Smoogj (I’m copying this post just in case he decides to scrub it from this thread
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What he was doing is textbook historical revisionism—basically trying to downplay responsibility for the atrocities committed during WWII. It’s a classic playbook for people like him: first, they try to minimize or relativize the actual history (claiming the existence of Auschwitz isn't such a big deal on its own), then they pivot to attacking witnesses personally—questioning who Branko Lustig is and what right he has to teach our kids—all while insulting me by suggesting I simply don't grasp "democracy" or lack the "analytical depth" to understand his genius. 😂 ...to top it all off, he swapped out his insults for mine and slapped me with a ban for allegedly violating forum rules.

I’m just looking for some clarity from the administration here. Is Mr. Smoogj—the same guy who thinks Auschwitz-Birkenau isn't actually that catastrophic and that it should just be "understood within a historical context"🙂

—really someone whose moderation we should respect given how he handles these topics?

Thanks. 🙂

I can see you’ve been handed a pretty sharp and intelligent response here
Now, I’m not trying to throw any shade or imply anything specific, but maybe that’s actually where the issue lies?
Or is it possible you’re just digging your heels in and refusing to grasp what the person is actually telling you?

I’m right there with Mr. Smoogj on this one... we all know that places like Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Majdanek were absolute nightmares—truly monstrous—but what we often miss are those subtle, early warning signs within a society... you know, those little shifts in the culture that signal one group might start targeting another in a pogrom...

To honestly feels like an attempt to justify why those concentration camps were even set up. Two million Jews were murdered at Auschwitz. That’s practically half of the entire population of a country like the US. Seriously? There is absolutely no excuse for genocide.😠
As for skipping the lecture by Branko Lustig, we really need to embrace what democracy actually means. Part of living in a free society is having the right to boycott a talk if you want to. We aren't living under some old-school authoritarian regime anymore, where the police would force kids to show up and listen to a bunch of washed-up old fossils. ☕

From what I have gathered, the mod wasn't actually trying to justify the existence of Auschwitz; rather, they were pointing out that the real issue lies in the underlying causes and the sequence of events that led to it. I suppose the mod's only true failing was assuming that everyone reading their words would actually grasp the nuance behind them.

mistyotter35 said:From what I have gathered, the mod wasn't actually trying to justify the existence of Auschwitz; rather, they were pointing out that the real issue lies in the underlying causes and the sequence of events that led to it. I suppose the mod's only true failing was assuming that everyone reading their words would actually grasp the nuance behind them.

We totally got what they meant, but honestly, no matter how you spin it, it still comes off like an excuse for genocide.

granitefalcon26 said:We totally got what they meant, but honestly, no matter how you spin it, it still comes off like an excuse for genocide.

Honestly? It doesn't look that way at all.

He was just saying we need to walk people through the historical context—the "why" behind everything—to understand how the existence of Auschwitz camp even happened in the first place. If we don't know why it happened, we can't stop it from happening again.

It’s basically a paraphrase of that classic line: "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it." If you don't recognize the warning signs and the steps that lead up to a crime, you're defenseless. He was being crystal clear.

granitefalcon26 said:We totally got what they meant, but honestly, no matter how you spin it, it still comes off like an excuse for genocide.

Honestly, the sentence "The existence of Auschwitz" (or, if we go by Ashley Bishop4's interpretation of what was read, "Auschwitz - Birkenau is something terrible, but not *that* terrible") is just a vile thing to say on a forum—in fact, there shouldn't be any place here for such a sentiment, nor for the person who typed it out.

Even worse is the claim that "The existence of Auschwitz camp - Birkenau isn't all that horrific and should be understood within its historical context." Someone writing a sentence like that shouldn't just be banned from this forum; they ought to face criminal prosecution.

The little issue with this entire thread is the minor fact that Mr. Smoogj didn't actually write either of those horrific sentences.

No matter how much you try to muddy the waters by complicating things with the sheer illiteracy used to draft what he actually wrote, it remains blindingly obvious that this attempt to reinterpret his words is nothing more than a common personal vendetta—I wouldn't dare suggest that someone could be so utterly incapable of reading comprehension that they actually believe the claims being made in this topic; therefore, I see no other explanation than some desperate attempt at nursing a bruised ego.

If one views it strictly as a fact, the memory of any human historical monstrosity will remain just that—a depersonalized recollection of a fact. On the other hand, if that fact is placed within a historical context (and I feel the need to clarify: this isn't about making excuses or downplaying anything, but rather about recognizing a pattern), then—contrary to the accusations of revisionism and justification being pushed here—that monstrosity becomes more than just a gruesome historical fact about what humans are capable of doing to one another; it becomes a starting point for identifying that very same pattern and, hopefully, preventing such horrors from ever happening again. Furthermore, examining a horrific historical event through a spatial, temporal, or political lens isn't an act of minimization at all; quite the opposite, really: it is only through that lens that one can truly grasp the full extent of the evil within the mechanisms that led to it.