Category: Holocaust

Essay on Could the Holocaust Have Been Avoided

Genocides have been around since the dawn of time. One of the earliest genocides happened in Carthage around 146 BCE (Matthews 2). Genocides can not be prevented. The United Nations has been ineffective in making policies to put an end to genocides for decades. A good education does not have all the power people think it does when it comes to putting an end to mass killings. Additionally, genocides have been linked to other worldwide problems; factors that have also been around for centuries and are only nonexistent in an ideal world.

The UN has been unsuccessful in preventing genocides despite numerous attempts. The United Nations established the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948 to try and prevent another Holocaust. However, it had some flaws to it. As stated by Paul Hiebert, “Although the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, established in 1948, was designed to avoid another Holocaust, the international community has a sad history of arguing over semantics and hesitating to act if a genocidal crisis isn’t deemed Holocaust-like enough, as backward as that may sound” (Hiebert 2). With this policy, genocides are only considered “genocides” if the death toll meets or surpasses that of the Holocaust. The amount of people who died during the Holocaust was around one million. Therefore, unless over a million people are being slaughtered, the UN will not intervene. Additionally, in 2005, the UN adopted the principle of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). “The basis of R2P (responsibility for protection) is that all humans should be protected from the four mass atrocity crimes – genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity” (Adams 4). Under this principle, genocides should not occur because all people are supposed to be protected from them. However, this has not been the case. Since 2005, genocides have continued to happen. These policies mean nothing if there are no repercussions for people who violate them. According to Paul Hiebert, “Many of those who participated in the 1994 genocide remain unpunished in the Democratic Republic of the Congo”(Hiebert 3). Not only does this scenario show that there truly is no price to pay for partaking in a genocide, but it also shows how the UN’s policy to prevent another Holocaust-like genocide, put in place forty-six years ago, was ineffective. Time and time again, after countless attempts, the United Nations has not been successful in stopping or preventing genocides.

Many people will argue that educating people and building schools will help in preventing genocides. There is evidence to prove this claim is not true. Ellen Kennedy makes a strong point in “Here’s Why Genocide Keeps Happening.” She said, “Although we can teach people to accept one another, this won’t change large-scale malnutrition, economic despair, and political instability” (Kennedy 6). Educating people and teaching them respect and tolerance is great. However, that is not enough to stop a genocide from happening. One could even argue that genocide leaders are already smart because they gain control and power over a large area. Education does not play as big of a role in genocide prevention as people think. There are so many other factors that go into causing a genocide and whether or not people are educated is not one of them. There have been times when highly educated people had the opportunity to intervene and stop a genocide, but they chose not to. In 2001, author Samantha Power and the current U.S. ambassador to the UN reported that “The Clinton Administration knew what was happening in Rwanda back in 1994, and therefore both could have and should have done something to help. ‘Any failure to fully appreciate the genocide,’ she writes, ‘stemmed from political, moral, and imaginative weakness, not informational ones’” (Hiebert 2). In this case, education had nothing to do with preventing genocide. It just came down to morale and character. Those aren’t things that others can impose on people. Those things are decisions and ultimately, people have to decide what type of person they want to be, no one else can do it for them. Education is not a major factor in preventing genocide.

Genocides are caused by far too many outside factors making them impossible to prevent. Mass killings are caused by many different things. According to Ernesto Verdeja, “Significant social crises may create the context for genocidal violence. Revolution, massive, economic upheaval, and especially war increase collective fear and acculturate a society to violence” (Verdeja 8). Similarly, Charles J. Brown said, “Scholars have identified certain external factors – particularly war, impunity for past crimes and regime fragility – that can influence or accelerate the decision to kill” (Brown 9). It is quite obvious that all genocides have many similar factors that played a role in the formation of the genocide. However, there is one factor that is always mentioned without fail, war. Just like genocides, war has also been around since the dawn of time. Nobody knows a world without war. According to the New York Times, humans have only been entirely at peace for eight percent of recorded history (Hedges 1). As for the other ninety-two percent of history, humans were at war. And with war, comes genocides. Genocides are caused by too many factors that are only nonexistent in an ideal world.

Although it is unlikely genocides will ever be prevented, there is a chance that they might be preventable someday. In Elie Wiesel’s speech Hope, Despair And Memory, he said, “(It is the wise men who will bring about peace.). Perhaps, because wise men remember best” (Weisel 3). Perhaps, if people learned from past errors that led them to such tragedy, then they would be able to make sure they did not repeat the same actions to lead themselves into another genocide. Therefore, genocides could potentially be prevented. However, sometimes not even wise, powerful people, like members of the United Nations, can control and put an end to genocides.

The world does not know a world without tragedy, war, death, and genocide. As dark as that may sound, it is the truth. Genocides have yet to be prevented and never will be. The UN has been unsuccessful in intervening and making laws to prevent mass killings for decades. Education is not a factor in preventing genocides. Both educated and uneducated people have the same capability of preventing genocide. Additionally, there are so many outside factors that are linked to genocides that have also been around since the beginning of time. Genocides can not be prevented.

Works Cited

1. Hedges, Chris. ‘What Every Person Should Know About War.’ The New York Times, 6 July 2003. The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/books/chapters/ what-every-person-should-know-about-war.html. Accessed 31 Mar. 2020.
2. Hiebert, Paul. ’20 Years After Rwanda, Why Is It Still So Hard To Stop Genocide?’ PacificStandard, 3 May 2017, pp. 1-3. PacificStandard, psmag.com/ news/20-years-rwanda-still-hard-stop-genocide-77540. Accessed 5 Mar. 2020.
3. Matthews, Rupert. ‘Battle Of Carthage.’ Britannica, www.britannica.com/event/ Battle-of-Carthage-146-BCE. Accessed 13 Mar. 2020.
4. Murekatete, Jacqueline, et al. ‘Here’s Why Genocide Keeps Happening.’ Zocalo, 1 May 2015, www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2015/05/01/heres-why-genocide-keeps-happening/ideas/up-for-discussion/. Accessed 5 Mar. 2020.
5. Wiesel, Elie. ‘Hope, Despair And Memory.’ Nobel Lecture, 11 Dec. 1986. Speech.

Understanding the Holocaust: A Deep Dive into Atrocities and Aftermath

The Roots of the Holocaust

The Holocaust is presumably the greatest genocide we know about; these atrocities thrived not because of the fear in the ranks/ not following orders as often misunderstood but because of the prevalent anti-Semitism, racism, and hate that was cultivated, praised, and allowed to thrive during that time period. Calling the Holocaust an ethnic cleanse downplays it. We need to understand that ethnic cleansing and genocide are two different things; Jews were not removed from certain geographic they were systematically murdered.

Why did the Holocaust happen? Was already a brewing stereotype and hatred for the Jews in Germany? The country/ Germany was already a broken nation after the ww1. They needed someone/ a group to blame. Hitler strongly believed in eugenics; to fulfill/test this pseudo-scientific theory of a racial hierarchy he strongly believed in, he needed a scapegoat. He played on the German’s vulnerability, basically conditioning them to believe the Jews were the reason for all their problems.

The Vulnerability of Children During the Holocaust

Children were particularly vulnerable during the Holocaust era; before the escalated, Jews children were being denounced in class for being Jewish. The killings of these kids were justified under the grounds of preventive measures. According to the United States Holocaust memorial museum, about 93% of the Jewish children population were dead. To give a clearer picture, of the nine thousand prisoners liberated from Auschwitz, only 451 were children. There were routine ‘children actions’ carried out to reduce the number of kids in the camps, and gassing of children and pregnant mothers upon arrival was the norm at most of the camps.

It is important to know that while there were cases of anti-Nazism, being anti-Nazi did not automatically mean being a sympathetic Jew helper. The 7% that survived faced a future with no familiar face/family, and for some, that was even worst/ worse than dying. There were a few factors that increased survival rates, the ability to look ‘German/Aryan’ being the best booster. However, ‘blue-eyes blonde hair did not always guarantee a pass, as we saw in the case of this often? This leads to the question; How exactly did the Nazis construct an Aryan identity. Who decided who had ‘good blood’? Why was blue eyes and blonde hair a marker of that blood in some cases and in other cases not enough?

The Struggle for Survival and Identity

Ultimately, avoiding the camps came down to these two decisions; can you openly pass as a non-Jew? Or are you small and quiet enough to be hidden in tiny spaces like attics, chicken coops even barns? Even with that, you would have to be strong enough to be able to move from hideout to hideout without being caught. For a good number of these kids, the emotional trauma was too much. It was also very hard to find a family willing to keep them for so long.

There were a couple of organizations that helped link Jews with sympathetic non-Jew helpers. These organizations focused more on children as it was easier to place them. Most of these organs, as you can imagine, were in Western Europe. There was a Committee de Defense Des Juifs, a Zionist youth movement in Budapest, that helped with falsifying documents. Also, the network called Circuit Garel was set in place by the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE) in southern France; they tried to recuse, race, and transport as many children as possible to Switzerland during the Holocaust.

The Aftermath and Search for Identity Post-Liberation

Life in the camp was very horrible. ‘Plenty of empty beds in the infants’ shelter even though the birth rate in the camps was relatively high.’ -Hava Volovich. Children born at these camps were murdered immediately. Records from the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial museum show that children from the age of six months and upwards were helped at the camp, where they died by the thousands. They were not seen as any different from the adults even though their bodies could not handle as much. Many of these kids, especially twins, were the subject of different inhumane pseudo-medical experiments while at the camp. A majority of the children liberated at Auschwitz were only alive because they were supposed to be used for medical research. These atrocities went on up until the final days before the liberation.

Liberation for the surviving 7% did not mean light at the end of the tunnel; some of them had forgotten what it was like to even be themselves, and they hid and blended so well that they had forgotten their true identities. In comparison, others had to deal with survivals guilt. A good example of forgotten identity was the case of Menachem Frenkel, Rescued by the OSE alongside other kids on their way to Auschwitz and taken to a private institution to increase his chances of survival. Menachem was there for so long that he forgot he was Jewish and ate pork like every other French boy up until the age of nine.

After the liberation, the painful search for other relatives who survived began. There were various efforts by various organizations like the Jewish relief organization a lot of them were not fruitful. However, a reunion was not a blessing for all. Some children were away for far too long. An example will be Renee Fritz, A Jewish child hidden in Belgium. She said, ‘I had been separated from my mother so long that mother did not mean anything to me.’ There were a number of cases where parents trying to get back their children were met with resistance and hostility by these same kids.

References:

1. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Children During the Holocaust.”
2. Volovich, Hava. Quoted in “Plenty of empty beds in the infants’ shelter even though the birth rate in the camps was relatively high.” – Hava Volovich.

Understanding the Holocaust through Elie Wiesel’s “Night”

Introduction to “Night” and Elie Wiesel’s Experience

The autobiographical book “Night” by Elie Wiesel tells us about the rough lives of living in the concentration camps. This book is about a young boy witnessing the gruesome of innocent lives being taken, who survives the Holocaust and loses his father for three months. During World War II, millions of innocent Jews were prosecuted till their death which led to many Jews having a loss of faith. Everyone tells a story about themselves in their own head. This story makes you who you are. We, humans, are responsible for presenting the messages of our past times to send information to ourselves and our future generations. For example, it may be to prevent a repeat that had happened, such as the Holocaust.

Identity Transformation Amidst Atrocities

The physical and mental appearance each individual has is created from the choices he/she has made since the day they were born. Elie said, “Since my father’s death, nothing mattered to me anymore “(113). This story has changed the identity of Weisel. He had lost all of his faith. This sends a message of how he lost his dad. Wiesel wrote this book to not gain the compatibility of the world for the victims or the survivors of the Holocaust. He reached to awaken our moral sense. This is his perseverance in measures aimed at preventing something as tragic as the Holocaust. Wiesel has given us not only an onlooker explanation of what happened but also an analysis of the destructive powers which lay behind the action. In these events, his main worry is the question of what type of capacity we can take to prevent repetition.

Loss of Innocence and Faith

Wiesel starts off by being an innocent child and devout Jew to a denied spirit, a soul, and human dignity, and even their bodies are denied the aid needed to survive. Wiesel said, “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me” (115). Wiesel states his old identity of being an innocent Jew has been taken over by this unpleasant corpse. He will never forget his story from his past. He also says, “Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever” . He couldn’t believe his god could let such horrid things happen to such a young boy.

The only thing that kept Elie and his father alive was the existence of each other. If one died, the other person probably could not make it and would die eventually. ‘My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me… I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his only support”. The connection between Elie and his father had made a relation with their identities. Overall, Wiesel educated people’s minds on how unique stories like his were a witness to history and a courier to mankind.

References:

1. Wiesel, Elie. “Night.”

Dehumanization, Faith, and Destiny in Holocaust and Slavery Narratives

Voices from the Abyss: Wiesel and Douglass on Inhumanity

Forced into bondage due to their racial differences, victims of the Holocaust and American slavery had their lives destined in endless torment where they had lost a sense of humanity and hope. The events of the Holocaust and slavery had inflicted many lasting effects of devastation and traumas on the victims, yet its pressing issues became silent in the aftermath of the events. Two survivors of these events, Wiesel and Douglass, decided not to keep their voices silent but to use the hardship they endured to voice out and educate the people around the world about the tragic events of the Holocaust and American slavery. Elie Wiesel’s Night and Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass are memoirs about struggling to survive in inhuman conditions. In the narratives of Elie Wiesel and Frederick Douglass, both men experienced dehumanization while enslaved, yet differed in the way they dealt with the hardship that they faced.

In both accounts, Elie Wiesel and Frederick Douglass faced merciless treatment under German soldiers and slaveholders, who were stripped of their identity and humanity. Wiesel describes one of his Selection experiences where tormentors forced the Jews to run like dogs and brute in frigid conditions by describing that they were “were no longer marching. We were running. Like automatons.” (Wiesel, 85) Wiesel recounts how, in the concentration camps under his German oppressors, he no longer felt like a human but a creature that has lost a sense of individuality.

Loss of Identity and Humanity: Personal Accounts

Furthermore, this loss of individuality is shown throughout the narrative as many of the Jews were tricking, stealing, and even killing others for food and other necessities since men became selfish beings who were careless of others and sought only their own survival. Similarly, depicts the reevaluation of his worth as a slave when his master Captain Anthony dies by describing how “men and women, old and young married, and single, were ranked with horses, sheep, and wine. There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and child, all holding the same rank in the scale of being.”

Douglass, like most slaves, was stripped of his identity since birth since his slaveholder never granted him the knowledge of his own birthdate or age. Both the oppressors of Wiesel and Douglass had control over them where. Wiesel worked like a machine following order, and Douglass was degraded to a piece of property and was compared to the value of livestock. As the German soldiers and slaveholders used their superiority to subjugate the Jews and slaves, both Wiesel and Douglass experienced inhuman conditions and a loss of their humanity during their captivity.

Religious Perspectives Amidst Atrocities

Although both men were dehumanized, they differed in the ways they acknowledged religion. As the inhumane conditions of the concentration camp finally take a toll on Wiesel, anger consumes him, and he cries out, “Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?” Unlike Douglass, Wiesel was able to freely worship God and already had a founded relationship with God before he became a captive in the Holocaust.

Additionally, Wiesel had the privilege of learning about God through the influence of a Jewish religious background. Yet, when his faith was put to the test, Wiesel’s faith in God wavered as he began to doubt and detest God due to his circumstances during the concentration camps. In contrast to Wiesel’s response to his enslavement, Douglass, on the other hand, cries out, “O God, save me! God, deliver me! Let me be free! … II Will run away. I will not stand it.

Get caught, or get clear, I’ll try it … God helping me, I will. It cannot be that I shall live and die a slave.” Douglass differed from Wiesel in that he had to learn to love and build a relationship with God while slaved. In fact, being born a slave, Douglass did not have the privilege of having a formal education of God since his masters prohibited slaves from reading and learning the Bible. Throughout his enslavement, Douglass recognized God’s providence and distinguished Him from the evils of the religious hypocrisy of slavery. In contrast to Wiesel, Douglass’s faith in God strengthened through his sufferings, and he trusted that God would help lead him to freedom. Despite the fact that both men believed in God, Wiesel’s faith wavered while Douglass’s faith remained strong as they faced hardships during their enslavement.

Journeys of Hope and Struggle

Along with differing in their relationship with God, Wiesel, and Douglass differ in their attitudes toward their enslavement and their fates. During Wiesel’s arrival at Auschwitz, a Polish man instilled hope in Wiesel by saying, “You have already eluded the worst danger: the selection. Therefore, muster your strength and keep your faith. We shall all see the day of liberation. Have faith in life, a thousand times faith. By driving out despair, you will move away from death.”

Unlike Douglass, Wiesel experienced what it was like to be a free man until he was kidnapped and enslaved in the Holocaust. For this reason, it was difficult for Wiesel to accept his fate in the concentration camps when he was forced into submission. Wiesel instilled within himself that the only hope for the end of his enslavement was either survival, liberation, or death. During his enslavement, his own purpose in life was to focus on surviving to hope for the day of his liberation.

On the other hand, Douglass realized that his condition as a slave was inescapable unless he purposed within himself to be free for a “white man’s power to enslave the black” was ignorance, and Douglass “understood the pathway from slavery to freedom” would be education. (Douglass, 27) In contrast to Wiesel, Douglass was born a slave and never experienced the taste of freedom. Since slavery bound him to a life of captivity, he was already used to the constant discrimination and oppression inflicted by his slaveholders. Douglass came to realize that he had a chance to determine his own fate and escape slavery through the freedom gained through educating himself. Withal, both men differed in how they dealt with their destinies while being enslaved as Wiesel surrendered to the life of a prisoner while Douglass took the initiative to free himself from bondage.

In the narratives of both Elie Wiesel and Frederick Douglass, they showed the abuse and brutality they faced during their enslavement, yet differed in the ways they responded to their treatments. Wiesel and Douglass exemplify a character of undying perseverance through the horrors of maintaining life on a concentration camp and a southern plantation. Though these authors still live with the constant remembrance of these events, they use their past circumstances to better their lives and to share with people from around the world the horrific events of the Holocaust and American slavery.

Wiesel and Douglass encourage the reader to examine these events as a result of the sinful nature of man and to determine without our hearts to put off injustice and place within our hearts the love of God toward all of mankind. By sharing their stories, Elie Wiesel and Frederick Douglass have given the readers a glimpse into the untold testimonies of the suffering of millions of victims of the Holocaust and American slavery.

References:

1. Wiesel, Elie. “Night.” Hill and Wang, 2006.
2. Douglass, Frederick. “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.” Dover Publications, 1995.

Elie Wiesel’s “Night”: Importance in Remembering the Holocaust

The Purpose and Destiny of “Night”

“I believe it important to emphasize how strongly I feel that books, just like people, have a destiny,” Elie says during the introduction. This truly speaks to a person because there was a purpose to this, all the lives lost, all the families separated. Often when disastrous and horrifying events such as the Holocaust occur, many people typically don’t bring it up. This event is crucial in our history. However, it did happen, and we as a country need to acknowledge that.

This book is about history, the moment they never thought that just for being Jewish, such a horror could happen. Elie Wiesel wrote this book to communicate his experiences and what happened. One of the main themes throughout the book is the title of the book “Night.” There are multiple references from Elie about the night during the book. The word “night” is used constantly, and Elie recalls every night and morning throughout the book. For example, the night can be used as symbolism for the Holocaust, which made families and thousands of Jews divided for life in the darkness and somber moments in concentration camps.

Violence: A Predominant Theme

Another theme would be violence. Violence affected the Jews in many ways. They were forced, beaten, and abused. The last theme is Faith.
The main theme is violence. Violence is shown throughout the whole book. “Over there, that’s where they will take you. Over there will be your grave. You still don’t understand? You sons of b******. Don’t you understand anything? You will be burned…turned to ashes.” Someone was warning them of what could happen. No one there remained hopeful. It was all crushed, their dreams, future, and families.
A developing theme throughout the story is seen in the word “Night.” It symbolized darkness and somber feelings. “I watched darkness fade…I was no longer afraid…I was overcome by fatigue”.

Symbolism of “Night”

Throughout the story, the weakness of faith emerges. Elie’s faith in the integrity of the world is completely shaken by the cruelty and evil he witnesses during the Holocaust. He cannot picture the concentration camps’ unbelievable and inhumane cruelty that could potentially reflect positively. He wonders how God could possibly be part of this. His faith is even more shaken when he sees not only the Nazi’s behavior but also the selfishness of the Jews. But he sees that the Holocaust exposes the selfishness, evil and atrocious behavior of which everybody-not, only the Nazis, but also the fellow prisoners, he feels God might not exist at all.

Conclusion

The book Night was somber and, at times, hard to read. However, it was real, and it did happen. More people need to be aware of it and realize what millions of Jews were forced into life experiences.

References:

1. Wiesel, Elie. “Night.”