'Austerlitz'

Often -- this is especially true today -- the most devastating aspect of the Holocaust isn't that the Nazis were attempting to murder every European Jew, but that they were trying to eliminate the culture, religion, lifestyle and even the memory of the European Jew.

How disturbing. I guess it's callous to say that the death of a person as opposed to their fillings, eyeglasses, photographs and furniture is not as devastating as the destruction of their memory, but the thing is, people die all the time, but more often than not, they leave something behind.

John Lennon left behind music. One's grandmother may leave behind some binoculars or photographs. An uncle may leave you his records. Your grandfather may leave you a box of letters or old books.

The end game of the Nazis wasn't just the death of however many Jews, but, at the end, to have no Aryans to ever remember a Jewish population. That's chilling.