Holocaust lessons learned?

I attended book club last night where we discussed Sarah's Key. This novel is based on the involvement of the French in the Holocaust.

One of the club members asked if we thought society had improved enough that such a thing could never happen again. Has the world learned its lesson? We thought of the current instances of "ethnic cleansing" and decided the answer is probably no.

I thought of something else this morning. I wonder if our "cleansing crimes" are just getting more high tech and easier to rationalize. Doctors estimate that 90% of babies with Down syndrome are aborted. We no longer have to send them to the gas chamber like Hitler did. We just choose not to let them be born in the first place.

I'm not sure I see the difference. Hitler wanted only a superior race which he defined as white, non-Jew, non-disabled people. Parents today want a superior baby - namely a non-disabled one.

I think we are just kidding ourselves if we think the attitudes that existed in Hitler's regime have all been erased.