How can something like the Holocaust happen?
Many people ponder the question of how
something like the holocaust could’ve happen. They seem so shocked that this atrocity was allowed to take
place while the whole world was watching.
But is it really that shocking? Genocide has been happening for ages and still is
going on today. It stems from the
divisions society puts people in based on: religion, gender, appearance,
occupation etc. By placing people
into categories there is an uneven distribution of power and certain groups
feel that they have the right to look down on others. This can be seen when looking at modern genocides such as
Rwanda. The Rwandans were
categorized into two distinct groups: Hutus and Tutsis. These groups were always fighting to
have more control over the other group and when shifts in power were made, the
opposing group would get jealous.
This ultimately led to the Tutsis killing all the Hutus in hopes of
wiping out the group that was seen as better than them. “Well why didn’t people stop them” you
might ask. The reason is because
people were afraid. Just like in
the holocaust you had a lot of bystanders (countries, people, churches, and
governments) that were fully aware of the situation, but because they were not
being persecuted and they feared that if they spoke out they might die—they
decided to remain silent. The
problem with this logic is that eventually the persecutors will come for the
bystanders and just like they choose not to speak out for the atrocities being
done to others, no one will speak out for the atrocities being done to
them. This cycle can be seen in
the poem “First they came for the Jews” by Martin Niemöller. This poem describes how people
sometimes don’t speak out against atrocities that are happening because they
feel as though it’s not their problem.
But when something bad happens to them the then have no one to speak out
for them just as they spoke out for no one.
I also feel that
another part of why the holocaust was able to happen was because of politics. People knew that Hitler held a lot of
power and even though they knew of his plans to wipe out all of the Jews, they
didn’t want to step in and possibly jeopardize their country’s relationship
with Germany. The fear factor
played a huge role in helping to make countries and governments bystanders. Hitler was also able to easily sway the
German’s into believing that it was right to kill all the Jews because he blamed
the horrible economic state Germany was in on the Jews. Hitler convinced the German citizens
that the Jews were the reason why Germany had to pay an absurd amount of war
debts. In portraying the Jews as
bad people, Hitler gained respect and support from the citizens. Hitler was a very cunning man and knew
exactly what he wanted to accomplish and how he was going to go about it. All of these factors led to the mass
killing the Jews.
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