It’s December again, and Xmas decorations are popping up all over. My aisle has some tinsel and ornaments on a few cubes, the next aisle over has ornaments on every cube. The flowers in the planters in the hallway are now red with green leaves, the door-decorating contest is in full swing, and there’s a giant Xmas tree in the main atrium, which will have its own special lighting ceremony this week.

I am seriously considering putting up a little Hanukkah decoration in my cube. I don’t know what it will be, and I don’t have a color printer so it won’t look too great, and I’m not even really intensely Jewish. But I do have Jewish heritage, and I was raised Unitarian Universalist, and the entirely Xmas-related decorations are kind of overwhelming. It’s time for a little diversity up in here. I just have to find a good printout, and maybe some magic markers.

Note: Although there are no explicit details, this topic may disturb some readers.

During World War II, Hitler’s Germany established dozens of concentration camps around Europe. Some of these were solely for forced labor, but others were also extermination camps. Human beings sent to these camps were either selected for immediate death or forced to work at hard labor that all too often led to the same result.
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