A Day for Mourning, a Day for Remembering

   A day for looking back at tragedies, it has been.
   Like the Dec. 7, 1941 attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy upon the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. A surprise attack, it was the 9-11 of its time, with 2,402 killed compared to 2,978 in 9-11. The two events stand together as the greatest attacks on American soil in modern times, both coming by surprise, and both prompting entry into notable wars. The U.S. declared war on Japan the very next day.
   And, the nation's media has already started memorializing on the first anniversary of the Sandy Hook shootings. The shootings took place Dec. 14, 2012.
   And, a third tragedy remains fresh in our minds, the death of Nelson Mandela.
   A fourth tragedy should be added. In lives lost, it ranks as the worst of them all. On Dec. 8, 1941 -- one day after Pearl Harbor -- the Holocaust began, as the first of six extermination camps in Poland began operation in Chelmno. That camp, alone, would account for the deaths of between 152,000 and 340,000 Jews. By the end of the Holocaust, two-thirds of the estimate 9 million Jews in Europe had been killed. Other minorities and unwanted people were also killed in the Holocaust, though Jews were by far the prime targets.