(Mercator) When the Allied armies marched into Germany in 1945, an American general whose troops had liberated a concentration camp was so appalled by the suffering of its surviving inmates (most had already died) that he ordered the inhabitants of the neighbouring village to file through the camp buildings and witness for themselves the horrors that had been done there.
The local people were traumatised by what they had seen and reported this violation of their personal space to Eisenhower. They were immediately offered counselling by US Army psychologists and the general was sternly disciplined. The War Department published an apology for the distress he had caused them.
This scenario is, of course, an absurd fiction.
In real life, General George Patton did indeed force residents of Weimar living near Buchenwald to file past evidence of unspeakable Nazi atrocities. Archival footage shows women sobbing and fainting. It may have seemed cruel, but those civilians had averted their eyes from these horrors (or so the Americans believed) and they needed to witness the unbelievable cruelties which had taken place in their own neighbourhood.
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I recalled this footnote to the history of World War II after hearing that staff, students and guests had walked out of a graduation ceremony at Australian Catholic University because the invited speaker, a distinguished trade unionist, Joe de Bruyn, had averted to a contemporary horror. “Abortion is the single biggest killer of human beings in the world, greater by far than the toll of human life in World War II,” he said. Those few who remained gave him a standing ovation but most had closed their ears long before.
Some readers, sadly, may think it outrageous that I imply an equivalence between the crimes of Hitler's totalitarian government and the termination of late-term unborn children. I’m not, for a comparison of evils may have the effect of trivialising either or both. I simply assert that too many good men and women remain silent when terrible things are done in this world.
Recently the upper house of the parliament of South Australia narrowly rejected (10 to 9) an amendment to the state’s abortion law that would have required people wanting to terminate their pregnancy after 28 weeks to undergo an induced birth so that their babies could be adopted.
The defeat means that the current law stands: late-term abortions remain legal at any time after 28 weeks. (Read the ABC's account of these events here.) If the amendment had been successful it would have been a small step in our progress (if there can ever be any) towards a world in which the unborn are recognised as human and therefore precious. A major campaigner towards that goal is lawyer Dr Joanna Howe: “make abortion unthinkable” is her catchcry.
The mass walkout at ACU was inspired by a different slogan – “make abortion invisible”. The protesters ignored the awful reality. It must have been a set-up: de Bruyn had provided the university with the full text of his speech several weeks in advance, and as a well-known and long-term vocal opponent of abortion his views can hardly have been surprising. One observer reported that people started to get up and leave immediately the word “abortion” passed his lips for the first time. I guess it served as its own trigger warning.
As if this isn't absurd enough, the institution where this occurred was the Australian Catholic University. What is it about the word Catholic, one wonders, that that academy's staff and students don't understand? To add insult to injury, the ACU has offered counselling to students who were distressed by what they were forced to hear, and offered a refund to those who felt their ceremony was spoiled by having to listen to unwelcome opinions. This in a university! What a world we have become!
Tweet This: What a world we have become where Australian Catholic University students walked out of a graduation ceremony upon hearing the word abortion
Editor's note: David Daintree is director of the Christopher Dawson Centre for Cultural Studies in Hobart, Tasmania. He served as president of Campion College from 2008 to 2012. This article was published by Mercator and is reprinted with permission. Views expessed by authors of commentary articles do not necessarily reflect those of Pregnancy Help News or Heartbeat International.
