Response to the Jewish Holocaust
Having watched the video "World at War: Genocide," I now have a better understanding of the horrors which transpired in World War II. Genocide is a sensitive topic, and historical acts of these mass extermination raises the profound question of how any individual is capable of carrying out such disturbing and abominable atrocities. Graphic scenes of malnourished Jews suffering evoked sympathy and pity, yet I couldn't stop thinking about terrible it was to be completely oblivious of the fact that they were being sent to extermination camps rather than to their freedom away from Nazi bigotry. Their absolute ignorance of the circumstances makes it all the more frightening-- heartbreaking even. I couldn't believe how effortless it was for the Nazis to deceive and murder the Jews in cold blood, and I couldn't believe how racial distinction could turn a human against his fellow man. I was shocked by the complete lack of empathy in the Nazis, and found it difficult to understand how their mind worked, let alone see them as human beings.
The most important thing to remember when it comes to preventing a genocide in the future is to reflect back on the Holocaust and other historical genocides, and understand their causes; or to analyze the series of events which ultimately led to such extreme consequences. Entrenched inequality in some communities or states such as Rwanda was one of the major factors which contributed to the genocide in the first place. In the case of the Holocaust, dictated compromises such as the Treaty of Versailles engendered hatred towards those who had imposed it on the Germans. Germans were neglected by the allies while the Treaty of Versailles was being deliberated. Does it really not make sense for the Germans in turn to not consider the equal nature of other racially-different human beings when they themselves have suffered at the hands of other nations? I am by no means expressing sympathy towards Hitler or the Nazis; they were horrible people for having done what they did; however, I am merely pointing the correlation between cause and effect.
Jews behind fences at concentration camps in World War II
Malnourished victims of the Holocaust