Today my attention was directed to an article with the headline “‘Showers’ placed at Auschwitz Entrance” (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4696040,00.html).

It’s the latest installment in the never-ending drama of “I’m So Offended.” Seems that Jewish tourists at Auschwitz are claiming ‘shock’ and ‘offense’ at the sight of mist sprinklers place near the entrance to Auschwitz, because it reminded them of the gas chamber showers used during the holocaust. There’s a picture of the offending plumbing in the article. They look nothing like the showerheads in the gas chambers.

What’s the problem with this latest bid to get on the “Poor Me” train?

First, the article mentioned ‘older visitors.’ How old would you have to be to remember Auschwitz? Well, say you were five years old in 1944, which would be around the youngest possible age to remember such a thing. You’d be be 70 years old now. That’s possible, I suppose, but how many of those complaining were actually interned at a concentration camp? And of those old timers, how many would find an innocent cooling device reminiscent of tragedy?

Second, carried to this kind of extreme, such claims are downright idiotic. Shall we all stop taking showers now, because there were showers used as gas chambers? Are we really to believe that all Jews and even sensitive Gentiles have been limiting themselves to tub baths for the last seven decades? Well, what about cars? Nazis drove cars, so best we walk, yes? Clothes? Nazis wore clothes. Jewish victims wore clothes, too. Must we all become nudists, lest we be reminded of past horrors?

Third, the really offensive thing is that that kind of bullsh*t trivializes the real history. As though the self-righteousness of the poseurs is in some way connected with the cataclysmic tragedy of the people who lived through it. Hard, cold fact: the people who saw the inside of the gas chambers aren’t around to be reminded of anything, since they were -inside- the gas chambers. And anything else is mere pretense.