Elie Weisel and Oprah at Auschwitz- Page 3

[Elphaba]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 12:47am

stupid statement of the day......

"She gives out too many gifts. It's kind of like, "Oh you know I'm just SUCH a good person--- have a car!"

I'm sure the thousands of children in Africa that received toys, shoes and clothes a couple of years ago don't agree. And I'm sure the thousands that have been helped by her Angel Foundation do not agree.

Bitter, party of one. Table for Bitter.....

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 12:49am

I think there's a difference between what you cited, Elphaba, and the hyperbolic sentiment in what you quoted.

And yes, she DOES do a lot of good things, but I still think she's often kind of insincere, and it's angering.

Updated On: 5/25/06 at 12:49 AM

[Elphaba]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 1:04am

I should not have said stupid. But I find that no matter how much good someone famous does, when they treat themselves and/or their friends, they are attacked......which to me makes no sense, and smacks of jealousy.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 1:29am

"My mom just called to tell me I need to watch it because
A)it's a part of my history *I'm Jewish*
B)I was named after someone who was in the Holocaust.

I was going to watch it anyway but are those reasons why I should watch it?"

of course those are reason enough. No matter if you a practicing Jew or not (I am not practicing) it is part of your heritage and history.

And since we are named after dead relatives, I would consider it an honor to watch in memory of them.

I will not get up on my high horse, but no matter what we hear, watch, or read about the Holocaust we can truly never get the real feel for what it was like. Only through a survivor, I believe, can we even get an inkling.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 2:11am

I didn't feel that Oprah was insincere at all.

[Flippancy]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 8:20am

I don't think Oprah, queen of all things, was/is insincere... but I DO think she's a bit over-the-top. I watched this when I got home from work (thank Allah for Tivo), and Oprah had an annoying habit of repeating, in a murmur, the last words of everything Wiesel said.

Wiesel: What we experienced was unspeakable horror.
Oprah: ....unspeakable horror.
Wiesel: My task is to make the world knows what happened here. It makes no sense in the conscience of man.
Oprah: ...no sense in the conscience of man.
Wiesel: It's cold here.
Oprah:...cold here.

[Okay, I made that last one up...]

[Elphaba]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 9:21am

flippancy, have you ever been to a concentration camp? Or, have you ever been somewhere where the person you have been is so overwhelmed that all they can do is repeat things. This is so common.
I remember a traffic accident that I helped investigate when I was in the army. We had a new MP who had only arrived the a day or two before....I won't go into the details but it was a horrific accident, and all he could do was follow me and repeat what I said.

I agree she's over the top, but I believe she was overwhelmed and didn't know what to say.
No amount of preparation can prepare you for Auschwitz, which is why I am watching and reading anyhing I can find out about it so that I don't walk around repeating things while I am there.

[Jane2]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 9:41am

What's disappointing to me is that so many of you on this thread watched a riveting piece on Auschwitz, led by a man such as Elie Weisel, and all you can comment on is Oprah-she gives too many gifts, seems insincere, etc. Are you even paying attention to what this show is about? I think the topic, footage, and commentary by Weisel are strong enough to steal anyone's attention.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 9:49am

Honestly, that's the thing that bothered me so much about watching it; how I feel about Oprah's commentary and the way handled herself in such an emotional situation with such a wise, beautiful person tainted the experience of seeing it and hearing him speak. It was impossible to watch without rolling my eyes at some of the things that came out of her mouth, and it failed to be everything it could have been.

Maybe the disappointment doesn't lie in the viewer.

Updated On: 5/25/06 at 09:49 AM

[Flippancy]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 9:50am

Thank you, emcee...my sentiments exactly.

[kelzama]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 9:59am

Hmmm. Mass Genocide. Auschwitz. Stalinist Russia. Darfur. Iraq.

Dictators hellbent on the elimination of races of people, all in the name of religious superiority.

In the past 80 years, over 30 million people murdered by the hands of tyranny and we still haven't learned our lesson. We still look the other way.

[Jane2]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 10:04am

I appreciate your response, emcee. Maybe I was just able to block her out or at least focus more on Weisel and the footage.

Updated On: 5/25/06 at 10:04 AM

[Elphaba]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 10:07am

"Dictators hellbent on the elimination of races of people, all in the name of religious superiority."

Hitlers or Stalins horrors had nothing to do with religious superiority, Hitlers had to do with supposed race superiority while Stalin just got rid of anyone he wanted to........didn't matter what religion.......this is one place religion did not rear it's ugly head as a reason for either.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 10:11am

The footage on its own was really moving, but I had a really difficult time tuning out her embarassing narration, which I think is a terrible reflection on Oprah.

I don't think it's correct to say it had *nothing* to do with religion. Yes, it was racial, hence the concept of the master race, and the fact that Jews were not the only ones murdered, but they were the primary group, and there was certainly extra discrimination against the Jews, which all stemmed out of needing an economic scapegoat: "The Jews have all the money." It wasn't religious superiority, but it certainly *was* religious-related hatred.

Updated On: 5/25/06 at 10:11 AM

[Jane2]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 10:15am

I think Elphaba may be referring to "Jewish" as not a religion but a race.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 10:16am

it was not based on religion, it was based on race. Of course they can be construed as the same thing, and the line between the two especially in Judaism is very thin. But Germany was looking for a scapegoat, something to unify the country and its people after the Great Depression.....when you think about it, it makes sense they'd pick those who had money in their misguided march towards a national identity of racial superiority.

Stalin, however was not religious, and that had nothing to do with religion. If he didn't like you, you died.

What amazes me is the numbers, the staggering difference between how many Jews lived in Poland before WW2 and how many now. The loss of life is staggering. While Auschwitz was probably the worst of the camps, there were so many, many more.

[kelzama]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 10:20am

Elphaba, you're splitting hairs.

Hitler initially acted on a belief of divinely granted superiority. Stalin's "religion" was communism, and enemies of the people, i.e. anyone opposed to communism, were eliminated.

I absolutely agree that in later years, religion had little to do with their quest for power and domination.

[Jane2]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 10:24am

I, like Oprah, find myself at a loss for the right thing to say. I can't think of anything worse than what those people went through at the hands of ...well, there are not words for them either. Those who lived through the concentration camps carry the horrors of what they saw and experienced within themselves for their entire lives. How they can reconcile it or in some cases, forgive it is amazing to me.

My mother had a friend who recently passed away, who was a Holocaust survivor. She had the numbers on her arm removed but you could still see the scars there. This woman had such a lovely disposition, and was always cheerful. She was a baker par exellence and was the hostess of the neighborhood, holding all the parties and religious observances in her home, with her husband. She was the first one there when someone was in need. Her attitude was a lesson for me.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 10:25am

that's what I have learned Undi, but when they do speak, one listens.

Kelz I just can't agree that communism is a religion. We'll just have to agree to disagree. Nazi germany was all about economics, and if you could build a master race around the people to unify them, so be it. I don't buy the religion angle.

and sometimes hairs NEED to be split.

Updated On: 5/25/06 at 10:25 AM

[kelzama]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 10:29am

Off-topic slightly:

Between Hitler & Stalin, entire gene pools of Jews were eliminated. The repercussions are still felt today.

Case in point: Amy Katz, a young girl in the Pittsburgh area stricken with a rare form of leukemia. Her only hope for a cure is a bone marrow transplant, but to date, no match has been found. Why? Amy's of East European Jewish descent.

Want to help? Have yourself screened to be a bone marrow donor. Painless, easy, free. If you're a match, you just might literally save a life.


Amy's Army

[Elphaba]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 10:33am

that is so sad. I hope she finds someone.

reminds me strangely of the comment yesterday about how many Nobel Prize winners were killed at age 1 or two, and I'd go further, how many literature, music, and art greats. How many died who would have made amazing contributions to the history of man...........while so many here now, do not. It really made me think what I have, or have not done with my life.

[ElphieDefiesGravity]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 4:51pm

Oh my god, that was so moving. I was sobbing.


Undi~ I've seen it.

Posted: 5/25/06 at 5:06pm

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 5:08pm

Please tell me that's photoshopped.

[Atrias]

Posted: 5/25/06 at 5:13pm

Did anyone watch the follow-up that was just on?