Shrewsbury author's book explores lessons of the Holocaust
The horrors of the Holocaust continue to resonate today, but in his debut book with a mainstream publisher, Shrewsbury's Simon Bell explores aspects that remain so uncomfortable that in some quarters there is a reluctance to address them.
The culpability of Nazi Germany in those crimes is a given, and in the occupied countries there was heroism, resistance, and defiance.
But that was not the whole story and, in 'Remembering The Holocaust And The Impact On Societies Today', Simon tells how there were levels of collaboration and collusion which, he argues, should be faced up to for the sake of honest history.
He examines in turn the roles and responses of various countries in those dark days.
Simon, who is a retired mental health nurse, said: "The impetus for the book was legislation imposed in Poland in 2018 that effectively criminalised any suggestion of Polish involvement in crimes of the Holocaust during the period when Poland was occupied and annexed by Nazi Germany.
"That caused me to explore whether they were justified in criminalising any criticism of Poland during the war and whether there was any collaboration by Poland and the Poles – and there was.
"All countries seek to view their past favourably rather than critically. There is a desire to be seen as noble resisters and repressed occupied states, as they indeed were, but there was also collaboration and participation.
