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Hitler’s Holocaust is one of the most iconic
examples of human cruelty, systematic desensitization

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and social manipulation in human history.
That such brutality could possibly take place

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in our modern world is a testament to the
power of a lie repeated often enough.

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Humanity must learn from the horrors of our
past so as not to repeat them time and again.

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So when those who survived the Holocaust speak,
we, collectively, should listen.

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This video will convey the words of Holocaust
survivors and their family members.

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These are their words, their stories, their lessons.

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“What do they know—all these scholars,
all these philosophers, all the leaders of

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the world? They have convinced themselves
that man, the worst transgressor of all

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species, is the crown of creation. All other
creatures were created merely to provide him

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with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated.
In relation to them [the animals], all people

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are Nazis; for the animals,
it is an eternal Treblinka.”

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“So, as many of you know, I spent my childhood
years in the Warsaw Ghetto where almost my

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entire family was murdered along with about
350,000 other Polish Jews. People sometimes

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will ask me whether that experience had anything
to do with my work for animals. It didn’t

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have a little to do with my work for animals,
it had everything to do with my work for animals.”

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Linking the human Holocaust to our treatment
of animals has long sparked controversy, disgust

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and outrage. Opponents view the connection
as belittling and disrespecting the experience

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of Holocaust victims and survivors.

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But what do we say when those making this connection are themselves survivors?

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“I totally embrace the comparison to the
Holocaust. I feel that violence and suffering

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of innocents are unjust. I believe that the
abuse of humans and animals and the Earth

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come from the same need to dominate others.
I feel that I could not save my family, my

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people, but each time I talk about cruelty
to animals and being vegetarian I might be

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saving another life. After knowing what I
know about the Holocaust and about animal

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exploitation I cannot be anything else but
an animal rights advocate.

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-Susan Kalev, who lost her father and her
sister in the Holocaust

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One survivor, known only as by his code name
“Hacker,” when he participated in the Animal

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Liberation Front raid on the University of
Pennsylvania head injury lab, stated,

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“I believe in what Isaac Basheivs Singer
wrote … Human beings see their own oppression

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vividly when they are the victims. Otherwise
they victimize blindly and without a thought.”

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“When I see cages crammed with chickens
from battery farms thrown on trucks like bundles

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of trash, I see, with the eyes of my soul,
the Umschlagplatz (where Jews were forced

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onto trains leaving for the death camps).
When I go to a restaurant and see people

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devouring meat, I feel sick.
I see a holocaust on their plates.”

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Marc Berkowitz and his twin sister Francesca
were among Josef Mengele’s victims, forced

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to undergo brutal medical experimentation.
He watched his mother and other sisters march

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to their death in the gas chambers.

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In fighting for the lives of Canada Geese
in danger of being killed, Berkowitz said,

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“I dedicate my mother’s grave to geese.
My mother doesn’t have a grave, but if she

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did I would dedicate it to the geese.
I was a goose, too.”

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“In 1975, after I immigrated to the United
States, I happened to visit a slaughterhouse,

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where I saw terrified animals subjected to
horrendous crowding conditions while awaiting

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their deaths. Just as my family members were
in the notorious Treblinka death camp. I saw

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the same efficient and emotionless killing
routine as in Treblinka, I saw the neat piles

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of hearts, hooves, and other body parts, so
reminiscent of the piles of Jewish hair, glasses

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and shoes in Treblinka.”

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“For most of the society, life was lived
as if none of this was happening. People had

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regular jobs, concentration camp workers went
off to work in the morning and came home at

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night to loving families, a home-cooked meal,
a warm bed. It was a job for them as it is

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for the animal experimenter, the trapper,
game agent, or the factory farm worker.”

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-Anne Muller, who lost many of her family
members in the Holocaust

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“It is wrong to harm others, and as a matter
of consistency we don’t limit who the others

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are; if they can tell the difference between
pain and pleasure, then they have a fundamental

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right not to be harmed. … Unless you believe
in fascism, that might makes right –

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we do not have a right to harm others.”
-Henry (Noah) Spira, animal activist and Holocaust

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“I know firsthand what it’s like to be
hunted by the killers of my family and friends,

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to wonder each day if I will see the next
sunrise, to be crammed in a cattle car on

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the way to slaughter. In the midst of our
high-tech, ostentatious, hedonistic lifestyle,

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among the dazzling monuments to history, art,
religion, and commerce, there are the black boxes.

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These are the biomedical research laboratories,
factory farms, and slaughterhouses – faceless

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compounds where society conducts its dirty
business of abusing and killing innocent,

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feeling beings. These are our Dachaus, our
Buchenwalds, our Birkenaus. Like the good

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German burghers, we have a fair idea of what
goes on in there, but we don’t want any reality checks."

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So what lessons should we take from the
horrific and unthinkable tragedy of Hitler’s Holocaust?

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“The point of understanding the Holocaust
in Europe is to prevent and halt other ones,

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not to remain narrowly focused on that particular
one, traumatic though it was.”

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“That’s the real lesson of the Holocaust,
isn’t it? That people could do everything

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and anything to those that they deemed ‘sub-human.’
Which is, of course, what we do to animals.”

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Not everyone has learned the same lessons
as the survivors we’ve heard from today.

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Albert Kaplan, a passionate vegan animal activist
who lost family members in the Holocaust wrote,

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“The vast majority of Holocaust survivors
are carnivores, no more concerned about animals’

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suffering than were the Germans concerned
about Jews’ suffering. What does it all mean?

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I will tell you. It means that we have
learned nothing from the Holocaust. Nothing.

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It was all in vain. There is no hope.”

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"and life is an eternal Treblinka."

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“And then, it finally dawned on me. “Never
again” is not about what others should not

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do to us. “Never again” means that we
must never again perpetrate mass atrocities

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against other living beings. That we must
never again raise animals for food or for

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any other form of exploitation. And that’s
when I became an activist for animal rights.”

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Please see the videos here for more information
on what the animals are going through right

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this very moment all over the world. Share
this video around so

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that these lessons are not in vain.

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Many of the quotes I shared today are from
Holocaust Educator Dr. Charles Patterson’s

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book “Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of
Animals and the Holocaust,” a powerful,

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respectful and thoroughly researched text.
You can find the link to this book along with

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other resources on the blog post for this
video linked in the video description.

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If you want to help support this activism, see
the link here or in the description below.

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Now go live vegan, hear their voices, and
I’ll see you soon.

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And I recall the admonition by famed Yiddish
writer Isaac Bashevis Singer,

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"that for the animals, all men are Nazis, and life is
an eternal Treblinka.”

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Subtitles by the Amara.org community