Eight Historical Omissions, Denials or Rewrites

We often rewrite what we do but history books are being rewritten to suit those in power. According to political psychologists this would be to mask any of the ill feelings the current generations have over the atrocities that were conducted years ago.

Here are some prime examples:

1. When I visited Italy and saw ovens outside of Trieste, many local Italians had no knowledge of their existence nor would they willingly accept their involvement in the herding of Jews to concentration camps. So I doubt whether this is taught in modern Italian history courses and I doubt whether Italians know how much they followed Hitler’s cause for a pure race.
2. When Japan rewrote their account of how they entered into conflict with the Chinese, they left out the bombing of Nanking and loss of life and property that ensued. This is a gross error on the part of the Japanese to not reconcile their past by at least being outwardly aware that such a bombing occurred, as did other atrocities.
3. The story of the Gulag became famous because of Solzhenitsyn’s exposure. He became aware of the herding of dissidents into work camps they could not escape through testimonies and his own research in the archipelago and that cost him an exile from his homeland. The fact remains that in the time he wrote the establishment would not admit to any wrongdoing.
4. Guantanamo has been kept a base but recent exposure of torturing back by the political establishment south of the border has Americans confused over their indirect involvement in the way that justice is applied. I understand that torture was carried out much to the video amusement of the captors and this is definitely not going to be taught in your classic modern American History book
5. The Chinese are well known for their elimination of Tibetan temples since that country was occupied in 1959. By reducing those reference points to rubble they thought that Tibetan culture would be exorcised but in fact Tibetans in exile are well aware of the lack of religious or ethnic tolerance in that part of the world. I am doubtful whether the elimination of these centres is taught in Chinese history books.
6. Many Germans completely deny that any holocaust has ever taken place. Maybe they think that the numbers tattooed on prisoner arms were just a passing fad and that stories of Jewish resistance were fairytales. The fact is thanks to the Weisenthal Institute many war criminals were later found out and Eichmann trial became a famous symbol of their corrupt war practices.
7. I don’t think the current pope would gladly admit to his involvement in the Hitler youth movement. Would that ever get included in a modern history of the Vatican?
8. This list can continue and name other people or places where atrocities occurred and have been shielded by the political establishment either then or now. Another example is the Kurt Waldheim case where the late Austrian president supposedly oversaw the deportment of Jews to concentration camps from ex-Yugoslavia. The president denied his involvement. Then he was accused of knowing about the killing of prisoners only a few hundred yards from his office after the battle of Kozara and denied that too. Is it possible that he was so ignorant of one of the largest atrocities of all time? It was actually in the mid-1980’s that Waldheim’s involvement in the Wehrmacht, known for its war crimes, came to light and that was after his election as president. This defence force was notorious for their war crimes. Denial is a key ingredient leading to historical omissions.