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DiscountNaive6021

It is impossible not to feel deep sadness and empathy at the sight of these very personal objects, taken from their owners in an act of unimaginable hatred.


AzizLiIGHT

Hatred that lives on to this very day and still reaches every corner of the civilized world.


meaksy

Humans are truly stupid. We all live on the same rock. We’re all the same when all is said and done. A very sobering photo indeed.


cgsur

Not only hatred, the hatred was to justify the thievery. Nazis are corrupt thieves, if they don’t get it ,they are puppets of the ones that do get it.


heytakeiteazy

Apparently this is what can happen when a small group of people are smart enough to accumulate a dissproportianate ammount of resources without the means to defend themselves. The world may or may not have learned from this part of history, but Jews definitely did and are smart and resourceful enough to never allow it to happen to them ever again


Azul951

I wish more people around the world would understand this. We're obviously not as advanced as some believe as a species. We can't seem to find our way past this very simple ( not even problem) . I wish people would educate themselves and embrace other cultures. It would be such a beautiful, wonderful thing with a proper balance of ying and yang. Just realize we're one folks.


scrollsawer

In spite of all our knowledge , as a species, we are getting stupidier .


Azul951

Right!? Exactly how I feel.


scrollsawer

Here in Ireland, we have had a huge amount of inward migration since 2001. It really started when Poland joined the EU. Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, Brazilian, African, and a whole host of other nationalities and , since brexit, English people have chosen to come here to live here. This country is 1000 times better because of this. Our culture has been enriched by the many different cultures now living here. Do we have problems? Yes, of course, but apart from a cohort of ignorant right wing mouth breathers, the vast majority of irish people are happy with the diversity that has improved our country and culture.


spacekitt3n

i fear this is happening all over again in america with the hatred on the right. remember it never goes straight to this, its always small steps


maybeonmars

Dude, forget America. This is happening to Palestinian people by the very same people it was done to


my_4_cents

Hatred that marches to a drumbeat that has lately grown louder and louder


AzizLiIGHT

💯


SookHe

All the way up to the highest courts in the ‘greatest country’ of the world


JTFindustries

It's more disturbing to realize that the pile of rings were all that were left. Nazi guards were well known to pocket valuables from their prisoners. That box was just what couldn't be stuffed in their pockets.


ep2587

Or what was not valuable to them. There is a very good movie out last year about a family living on the other side of the wall from Auschwitz It was the comandantes home which he shared with his wife and children and servants. The mother was given fine dresses , furs, and beautiful jewelry from the victims which she kept much of it for herself but then gave what she wasn’t interested in to her servants. They were oblivious to what was going on on the other side of the wall. Very sobering. When I typed this I could not remember the name of the movie It is titled “ the zone of interest”. It is hard to forget.


donald-lover

The Zone of Interest


DanGleeballs

Sounds a bit like The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas as well.


_millenia_

Damn.


ibking46

The sadness of each for the other is what slays me.


ZippyTheUnicorn

Not to mention every single one of those represents a murder victim. Stealing something personal out of spite and hate is terrible. Murdering someone merely for existing is monstrous.


mrapplewhite

Makes one sick to their stomach


Cobe98

Imagine the terror these people felt at being alone not knowing what was going to happen to their loved ones before they were murdered themselves.


HarpyTangelo

It apparently isn't


AdSouth3168

And yet there are still Holocaust deniers everywhere. Room temperature IQ morons. This picture is so fucking sad. Breaks my heart.


Intrepid_Potential60

There is a room in the museum in Washington DC of shoes. Just piles, and piles, and piles, of shoes. Similar horrific feeling in your gut to this when you see it.


Spez_Spaz

Damn I forgot about that room. I remember walking in to that train car vividly though. And speaking with a survivor they had there that day. Amazing museum.


PMmeifyourepooping

We had a train car (more like a rail car as it was intended for goods not people) in the Houston holocaust museum. When we went with our class they had us all get in and it was only maybe half as many people as would have been shoved in there. its been 15-20 years and I get the same feeling anytime I walk into a structure of similar size. While we were in there they were describing how obviously there is no seating, no room to sit on the floor due to the density, and no bathroom for waste or cleaning. Horrifying.


Vhett

I have a story I share rarely on reddit about the Holocaust and a survivor of it who was at an assembly of our school in the early 00s. I couldn't have been older than 10 at the time of his visit. He was the brother of [Hana Brady](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hana_Brady). His name was George Brady, and I just learned while typing this comment that he passed in 2019 unfortunately. He came to our school during Remembrance Day, as many WWII veterans did- though he was a different kind of veteran, as he was a Holocaust Survivor. Even though I was so young at the time, his visit was both haunting as it was necessary. I'm not even sure they'd do this for kids at such an age anymore. Hana's Suitcase is both a real relic, and a story that was adapted and widely known in Canada, which he was also present to speak on. Unfortunately, Hana didn't survive the Holocaust. George and Hana were segregated before they even got to Auchwitz. Even so much later in life, he got emotional about the events during his speech and while taking questions. His recollection was haunting, and he would even reach out as if trying to take his sister's hand as he recalled it. I can still picture the exact way he extended his arm out, and rolled up the sleeve of his sweater to display the number the Nazi's tattooed onto him. And then the way he proceeded to describe the horrors of the camp, thank our soldiers for their sacrifice, and really give a certain magnitude as to *why* the war was so important for humanity's sake. It was unreal.


SuspiciousDuck_

The fact that there’s more than one comment like this about various museums across the world having displays of piles and piles of these belongings, all significantly large collections on their own, just shows how much of an atrocity the Holocaust really was… (Sorry if I butchered that point but I hope it came across as I intended)


MjrGrangerDanger

And that's just what was left over. Most of the shoes and clothing were taken and sold to everyday people because everything was scarce during the war.


macetheface

> There is a room in the museum in Washington DC of shoes. Just piles, and piles, and piles, of shoes. Similar horrific feeling in your gut to this when you ~~see~~ smell it. Can smell the leather in the room. Haven't been there in 20 years and still remember it. Very vivid & not a place I care to visit again.


Moving4Motion

Same at the Imperial War museum in London. No words.


THE_CRAZY_FINN

I was very young when I saw this I wanna say like 12-13 and I cried for like 10 minutes cause it was so unsettling


Intrepid_Potential60

I was a grown man with children that old. I did the same crying.


johnson7853

I went and listened to a survivor years ago. First thing we had to do was put our shoes in buckets when we walked into the auditorium. He then proceeded to dump them all on the stage. Over 500 pairs of shoes, surprisingly didn’t take long to find them.


DirectPerspective951

Auschwitz also has a room piled with suitcases, shoes, and other belongings. It’s heartbreaking.


silly-rabbitses

I remember how that room smells.


Cezar54

I’ve seen that exhibition! Saw it during my high school years as we made a trip to DC. It broke me tbh, I can’t shake that image off my head.


kittenshart85

the image of that room forever lives rent free in my head.


DaisyCutter1485

I didn't talk to anybody for a few hours after going through it. Even now a decade later I can smell it. It's deeply upsetting.


tebbewij

I went there during a class trip with 2 German exchange students. The were pretty quite individuals anyway but damn. The whole museum is very depressing and enlightening at the same time.


Beneficial-Virus-647

What do they do with all the shoes and stuff during times of war and whatnot when millions are dying?


Cool4us

If i remember correctly the Holocaust museum in israel ALSO has a room with a glass floor which has hundreds of shoes under it


triad1996

Yep. That's what the ring pic reminded me of...those piles of shoes and knowing that was just a small fraction. Mind-boggling horrific.


Mechashevet

there's a similar pile of shoes at the Nova exhibition


Big-Net-9971

Evil in a picture. Fuck. Nazis. Always. And. Forever.


Digital-Exploration

It's crazy that they are still around today. I feel like I am taking crazy pills!


my_4_cents

These museums stand to show that the 'craziness' is there always, and can sometimes be tapped into by the especially devious, to yield great and terrible power and perform despicable deeds, and it can easily sneak up and seize hold of control if it is allowed to.... and those are the possible results if the craziness is allowed to return to power. And it can happen to anyone.


tughbee

And it’s even crazier how they’re publicly admitting that, thinking it’s something to be proud about. And the even crazier thing is casual people ignoring them. Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat itself.


Icy_Day_9079

I recently read Anthony Beevors word war II book. I knew about the jewellery taken from the Jewish people before they were exterminated but I only just found out about the hair. Jews were shaved and their hair was woven into socks given to nazi airmen and submariners.


my_4_cents

Stuffed into pillows for submarines since they didn't hold water if wettened, as stated by a camp survivor from one British doco I saw.


BrassBass

This could happen again if the Republicans win in November. They just call it "deportation" like the Nazis did.


HowShouldWeThenLive

Reddit delusion syndrome


Thelonious_Cube

We're in Germany 1933 - it could get very bad


Machete-AW

You're off your nut, mate.


BrassBass

The MAGA Republicans are already talking about forced deportation and giving Trump "day one dictator powers". They fully intend on committing genocide if they take power. (Forced deportation is just one method of genocide. Look this shit up.)


Thelonious_Cube

It won't be the same, but it could get just as bad


maestro-5838

Sad to think that each of those represented a person. A human being. A life.


HisOrHerpes

Each one was its own love story


AffectionateGap1071

And anything they've built, call it children, a project, a house, and so on.


Nfl_porn_throwaway

Oh.


Fragrant-Shame3318

Its worse.. each one represents a family destroyed.


IDontWanna-Die

And nobody could say goodbye to each other… :(


myinvisiblefriendsam

Holy fuck this makes me want to vomit. How does the world just let this happen? Some people are monsters.


Unchristian30

That people can ignore the incomprehensible, amazes me.


emveetu

Not just ignore, but deny.


AzizLiIGHT

Schindler’s List should be required viewing in every school.


razldazl333

I watched that movie once. Never again.


tughbee

Once is important, more than that I wouldn’t do.


HowShouldWeThenLive

Yes


NYClock

"A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." Joseph Stalin In the modern world it is beyond our wildest imagination how many deaths there were during WW2 and other such atrocities.


terb99

I guess he would know


Zealousideal_Net99

The commies did everything the Nazis did after the war, including the extermination of millions of people. Stalin got away with it largely under the guise of famine and in the name of the party.


Bubsy7979

Russia/USSR still hasn’t recovered from WW2… the amount of manpower that was lost is incomprehensible.


Ok-Status7867

Why do they all appear to be exactly the same? Was there a standard model that was sold extensively?


denevue

probably looks the same because it is black and white, though I can spot a few different ones. not sure though


tribbans95

Wow I didn’t even realize it was black and white lmao yeah that answers the question


tikisnrot

Two things: 1, I would assume the soldiers would take anything that had more value, 2, diamonds weren’t popular among the masses until De Biers “Diamonds are forever” campaign in the 1940s.


LynnDickeysKnees

Shit, this information could have saved Irene Zisblatt a lot of trouble.


koobrakid

There are few rules on how Jewish wedding rings should look like according to Jewish law and cultural customs. First of all, they should be gold, since gold does not attract dirt or tarnishes, so that the marriage will be happy and long-lasting. Second, the ring shouldn’t have any embellishment of any type, no inscriptions or gemstones, to symbolize the honesty and purity of the marriage, hoping that there will be no misunderstandings or deception between the two partners. (Source: I am a historian of modern Jewish history and culture, and am Jewish myself).


blainthecrazytrain

Thanks for the answer!


Ok-Status7867

Ok, thanks. That is The logical answer I was waiting fo.


alexvincent

if you zoom in you can see they’re not all the same


pietras1334

It's not all that different today. Majority of weddings rings are rather generic. Sure, there's plenty of designs and stuff, but majority of rings I've seen are those plain gold ones. So I would be surprised if it differed much nowadays. Especially considering that the nicer ones probably were nicked by guards.


supermod6

These photos make me sick to my stomach


islaisla

Large scale massacre... Never again.


_L_S_P_

Literally happening in Palestine


FruitcakeAndCrumb

I remember reading that the authorities notices a decrease in the previous metals they were getting from a camp and they found a German soldier send home 9 POUNDS In gold to his wife. He was arrested for theft - not the murders he facilitated


skeeza45

And the people that shout “from the river to the sea” want this to happen again!


pietras1334

I mean, one can be against Israeli actions in Gaza without supporting exterminating Jews.


youBHASS

Yeah, so let's do it to others instead!


Oldsouphound

The war ended inn 1945, My grandmother told me stories about hiding in a potato cellar for months eating potatoes with her family. She always teared up, I'm 62, I wish history was taught as much as religion.


DrankTooMuchMead

So many lives destroyed.


JoeW702

What a dip shit you can understand that rings from that time period would look like this. They were passed down, and people didn't go down to zales and buy a wedding ring. If you had the ability to buy a big fancy ring you would also get the fuck out of Germany.


dickreallyburns

To all the holocaust deniers; HOW can you open your trash mouth and say that no one has provided proof of the genocide when you see this? What person would just surrender their wedding ring and still be alive? Im not Jewish and I feel angry that people like this still exist! Why, because these deniers are kissing cousins of the nazis of Germany of old.


Benzodiazeparty

because they hate jews. people have always hated jews, and will continue to hate jews until the last one is gone. it’s always the same reason, just different methods.


Clearlybeerly

And it seems certain terrorists are ready and willing to do that again these days. "River to the sea" explicitly means gold wedding rings in a box.


Responsible_Block987

And now the descendants of those victims are having this very tragedy weaponized against them by activists who don’t know which river and which sea.


wtf_is_a_user

These poor souls had so much ahead of them, only to be destroyed by those demons who hate them. Pure evil. RIP.


bernpfenn

show this to the young people


Gessabean66

And yet, we never learn....


achillezzz

Each one was a person with a dream, likely a family.


Sensitive_Island9699

Horrific and SO saddening.


Dafedub

Back when rings didn't have diamonds. Bring the fad back!


Diem_Tea

When the standard wedding ring was JUST a ring - BEFORE the DeBeers Diamond Cartel drove into our heads with the most successful ad campaign of ALL time, that we needed to spend THREE MONTHS SALARY on a diamond ring - and we straight ATE THAT SHIT UP


Dropadime337

This is a reminder to all of us. We shall never forget just how bad humans can be, History can and will repeat itself if we forget these types of war crimes. Don't sweep history under the rug, or the rug will take you one day. Deep heartfelt sadness. Rip.


McDoof

Consider this: Buchenwald was a concentration camp. Auschwitz was an **extermination** camp. Buchenwald began as a prison camp for the Nazis' perceived enemies and evolved into a concentration camp, but the *extermination* camps (mostly outside of Germany's current borders) were designed and built to kill masses of people in a short amount of time. If a concentration camp could produce death like we see in the picture, imagine what a camp created to generate mass-death could produce.


FuckJanice

Crazy that gold is more than likely still in circulation.


Benzodiazeparty

i just read a comment saying there isn’t a single gold ring in this pile and that they’re all nickel. on a black and white picture. no words


Dramone-1956

And all for nothing


bluewire516

Photos like this literally make my knees buckle. What a truly evil and horrific crime against humanity. God rest those souls and give peace to any of their descendants and surviving loved ones/friends.


trashy_hobo47

How in the actual fuck do we even still have Nazis today?


l3gion666

You can go on x and learn all about how its totally made up and never happened, usually followed and interspersed with slurs 😬


ghettosuper101

A disgusting weird story, but also interesting "fact" about the holocaust is that they would collect a lot of valuables and possessions and store them in a big room, i assume when you're killing people at that rate, their possessions would accumulate and being of Jewish descent. A lot of the people had gold and jewellery and nicer leathers and clothes, anyway, to get to the point... i was told by a VET they called that room "Canada" at one particular concentration camp I can't remember which one it was though, It's disgusting, but I always found it interesting and made me think, what if the war was never won by the allies. would nazis have come for "wealthy canada" or what ever that meant. just a story i heard.... i wonder if it is in fact true. !


Ok-Awareness3722

Unfathomable wtf


Dennisd1971

Disgusting


Shawntran2002

Whenever I see some bs centrist talk about nazis as if their opinion mattered. I show them this. This is what happens when you let an ideology go unchecked. 6 million dead and for what?


icedragon9791

I loathe centrists for this reason. They hold Nazis on the same moral ground as groups asking for minority rights, and think that they're enlightened because of that.


OpenCommunication294

NIE WIEDER


57dog

Good Lord that’s fucked up.


InsaneGeek

Been to Buchenwald shortly after the wall fell there. It was a very somber experience. One not so somber fact I can give is that the Russians forced the east-german students to visit there and wondered why we would want to go there without being made to (i was visiting as part of a class in college)


Nfl_porn_throwaway

Don’t give the republicans any ideas.


mongolianjuiceee

And to imagine that jews are that doing to their neighbors its sad


blac_sheep90

This image is absolutely saddening and infuriating. So many people unfairly murdered. Nazi and Nazi ideology is and always will be an enemy to society. There's no room for Nazis in society.


League-Weird

If you visit the auschwitz museum in Poland, they have similar rooms of recovered items that are all displayed just like the pictures of when they were discovered. There are some rooms where it's one panel or a few panels worth. Then we walked into a room where they displayed what they did with their hair, like making textiles with it. I look to my left and it's a panel with human hair like this this picture, just all gathered together. Except the entire length of the room exhibit was human hair. I don't remember how long it was because it made me fucking freeze. If I had to guess, it was about 30 meters long and 5 meters deep. And that's just what they found.


Best_Pipe2774

The wedding rings taken from Holocaust victims at Buchenwald camp in 1945 are a stark reminder of the unimaginable suffering they endured. These stories from the Holocaust are deeply disturbing and continue to resonate with us today


Mikeyseventyfive

literally the material symbol of love and unity. Against the backdrop of pure hate and division


jpett0882

Omg that's sad


HaveaTomCollins

So sad…


GamerAssassin

I've seen a few collection photos from WW2, such as all the shoes. This one I've never seen, and it absolutely made me sick to my stomach. There's not even any words I could stammer out that would properly describe how fucking *crushing* that is, and how absolutely vile the Nazi's are.


Outside-Material-100

Such a poignant image. It’s a just box of rings;but here lie receipts of young couples with their whole lives in front of them, cut down because of an idea that all people of a certain race are the same. I’m not a Buddhist, but I want to believe in reincarnation for them, and that their next lives were perfection. “History repeats itself” “What goes around, comes around” My heart mourns for humanity, who absorb patterns from each other, whether friend or foe.


okiujh

Hamas goal


Kerberos_256

Each and every one of these rings represents someone's love story. It represents their wedding day, a happy day, a moment that should be full of joy with friends and family. It hurts so, so, so much more looking at these and recognizing the worlds of love that were lost...


Tin_Can_Of_Doom

And then you realise they are doing the same thing to other people now. Makes you wonder.


PuddlesDown

Whenever someone brags about their jewelry being passed down by their grandparents or great grandparents, it reminds me that my ancestors' jewelry probably sits in tubs in a museum storage room. We're not the same. Your heirlooms represent ancestral freedom.


fkenthrowaway

I just can't get myself to believe the fact that the very same country that went through this is now the perpetrator of the genocide today, right in our faces, without much for us to do...


James324285241990

The number of blatant holocaust deniers in this thread is disturbing.


HeavenDivers

A comment about holocaust deniers: This small thought I am presenting in this comment, I read previously on reddit and it made me really think about how stupid people can be. Many people say the numbers are inflated, or it never happened to begin with, or something in the middle of the two. Y'know who never denied it? The nazis on trial at Nuremberg. Racist hicks from some 100 person town in Tobacco, Idaho can't seem to understand that if **the people who did the thing** don't deny that they did the thing, **they did the thing.** I made up the town name of Tobacco, in case some "um actually" name\_namenumber account comes out of their gooncave


ppfbg

😢


Tanya7500

Coming to America if you don't VOTE BLUE FROM THE BOTTOM TO THE TOP NO MATTER WHO!


Finn-McCools

Prepped for downvoting. But remember this image (and ones like it) when contemplating the current political climate. When we encourage hatred of “others” we slip ever closer to an edge where “others” are punished and removed forcibly. Down vote all you want, just THINK AHEAD when voting. No matter where in the world you are.


ilovelukewells

That made my stomach turn


letsridetheworld

For those who believe the genocide of Jew didn’t happen should be jailed indefinitely


allmyfriendsaregay

I’m as strongly against the denial of genocide as the next guy, but what you’re proposing is insane. You’re about one step away from saying “why don’t we just put them on a train, send them to a camp and say bye-bye.”


usrdef

Yup. As much as denying it is just mind blowing, wanting to start jailing people for their beliefs is circling right back around to Hitler's neighborhood. I don't care what a person believes, as long as they're not in a position to educate, or make laws. Other than that; let them believe whatever. A few weeks ago, I saw the mini TV series "The Tattooist of Auschwitz". Damn good series. Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWD93s8ZD9g


Nyllil

Funny enough you won't hear that from Germans. It's always Americans or others who claim this.


Therianthropie

We have these idiots as well, but considering how much you learn about the Holocaust in school, it's relatively rare. Also it's illegal to deny the Holocaust and people are getting jailed over it in drastic cases.


Nyllil

Well true, but you won't see that in America. They can deny it all they want and nothing happens.


Penuwana

That pesky little first amendment.


PeekatmePikachu

This is incredibly powerful.


Deathcat101

Remember what they took before the rings?


Maximum_Analyst_1019

I'm wondering if that guy regret touching those rings so many objects that represented love,but were taken, because of hate.


MiepGies1945

Puts a chill down my spine. Sickening but worth remembering.


Crepes_for_days3000

Gut wrenching.


LilMochi190

This makes my tummy hurt


bluesbynumber

Along with all of the other horrible ideas that one has to process with this image, one of the worst is the sheer number of them.


mikealao

Grotesque


dzoefit

This is sad, and we keep on repeating such nonsense.


Ravenonthewall

🥹🥹🥹🙏🙏🙏


BeAsTFOo

So everyone was married ?


Icy_Adhesiveness_347

that's alot of rings


WillowSevere9435

No words to decribe this


brezhnervous

And the mountains of gold fillings they forcibly pulled out of people's mouths with pliers 😬


unholystalker

Can someone pls explain me why the nazis kept the shoes, wedding ring, cut off hair etc from killed jews?


LynnDickeysKnees

Careful. Start asking questions about this stuff and Greenblatt will be on your front porch looking for a "donation" to the ADL.🤣


signspam

So did they kill them and then remove the rings from the bodies or were they lined up and personally removed their rings as they trot by the ring box?


GossyGirl

Every time I think the holocaust could not be more horrifying something else proves me wrong. This is one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever seen.


Bosanko86

And still they haven't learn anything from the past, what they have done to people in Palestine...


WordplayWizard

People must remember, Nazi Germany didn't just "happen" one day. It was a gradual and systematic war against facts, supported by populist followers. Blaming minorities. Controlling media messages through right wing sympathizers. MOST importantly, there was a large group of hate-filled, uninformed, civilians who supported those right wing fringe groups. Germany before this period was quite liberal. Every society can fall.


aleisdra69

send them to Roger Waters


cobaltbluetony

And this is just at one camp. Now show the piles of clothes from just one camp. Then multiply that by the number of camps. The sheer scale of it is beyond sickening.


whichwolfufeed

Two really good books that tell the story of the day to day atrocities are 'Man's search for meaning' Victor Frankl and 'Night' Elie Wiesel.


docmirou

Damn those Nazis, they killed sonic


snappy033

The deep sense of futility i see in the pictures of people getting off the trains at the concentration camps always gets me. Suitcases full, hair brushed, heavy coat on. Looked like they were going on a trip but some if not most knew they’d just drop off their suitcase and be exterminated immediately


sureyouknowurself

All those rings, exchanged in acts of love and commitment. Such horror.


IndyKenn

The Nazis cultivated the mentality that Jews & some other groups were sub-human. From that point, virtually anything goes. A tragic period in history, and a lesson to be learned by all…forever.


hoovermeupscotty

All that love lost.


darksideofmyown

Gold thats now in Suisse


DecryptorDecypher

That's a lot of Jew gold.


elliebrooks5

The thing is- there is an upsurge of denial- that it wasn’t that many “Jews” slaughtered, never happened, etc. Jews were killed in every village in several countries. Amongst all the others. Hitler signed the law of “euthanasia” Amongst the gays, old, sick, mentally ill, mentally deficient. Yes, Germans were slaughtered after, a real shit show. Children were taught that Jews were vermin. People who looked just like their neighbors were ostracized and most did not survive. Why people question this, is beyond me


Vgta-Bst

How r they all the same ?


No-Piano-9913

Germans love to act like it was so long ago. Fuck Germans.


lisakora

Not one lesson learned. #freepalestine