The Extermination Of The Jews Essay Research

The Extermination Of The Jews Essay, Research Paper

The first 13 of the 18 documents, collectively called The

Extermination of the Jews, were not in any way new stories to me. In

fact I came into this book with the same attitude that I usually do

when faced with Holocaust stories, that of “Yes it was horrible, but I

know all about it already. This reading isn’t going to do anything to

my attitude.” I, as I always am in thinking such a thought, was wrong.

No matter how much you know, no matter how many Holocaust survivors

speak to you, no matter how much you read about it, no matter how much

the atrocities are ingrained into you mind, you can never be immune.

You are always horrified by this extermination, and every time that

you read about any incident you are more disgusted than the last.

You are always reminded that these people that were being slaughtered

like animals were not much different than yourself or anybody that you

know. It does not matter whether you are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or

any other religion, you have to sympathize with these people because

they are people. Despite whatever the Nazis tried to make them into,

one can easily see that is was not the Jews who were sub-human, but

the vicious, blood-thirsty Nazi murderers who were the animals.

Many of these readings reminded me of the question “Where were

the people? Where were those who said, `NO! This is wrong!’? Why would

no one stand up to such an obvious wrong?” The ninth document shows

how the Nazis eliminated Jews’ rights. It amazes me that there weren’t

more non-Jews who would speak out against these ridiculous, arbitrary

laws. Can fear truly silence a person to the point of just accepting

the dehumanization and deaths of millions of people? I still cannot

bring myself to believe that this is human nature. No thinking human

being could accept this, yet an entire nation bowed to the insane

will of a madman. Clearly, somewhere in human nature is an innate

passivity possessed by many people. This passivity must be so powerful

that it can silence those who wish to be active, who will stand up for

what is right. Is it not reasonable then to think that ,despite all of

the good intentions and courage that people display, it could happen

again.

Document five shows how a person can be fooled into believing

in the superiority of one group over another. Globocnik must have felt

this way or he would never be able to make boasts about burying bronze

tablets in order to commemorate his murderous work. What does it take

to make a human, the only known sentient creature, pride himself of

doing something that is below even the barest of creatures? It was

this document that was the most shocking to me. Where the others show

the suffering of those the Nazis captured and killed, this one shows

in ghastly detail how some delighted in the misery these people.

The final five documents attempt to show varying explanations

as to how this abomination known as the Holocaust could have occurred.

The first, an excerpt form Machiavelli’s The Prince shows reasons that

Hitler was able to retain such control over the population. He states

that fear enables a ruler to retain perfect control over those he

rules. Indeed this was one of Hitler’s strategies. He scared people

into not reacting by using the threats of imprisonment and death. The

statements made by Hobbes attempt to prove that man is naturally evil.

Although upon first glance at the Holocaust one may think that this is

true, it seems that a more accurate representation would be that some

people are evil, and that they when in power can influence the

primarily neutral population. Locke’s view of the rationality in man’s

nature seems an absurd optimistic opinion after reading all of the

offenses against humanity. Although there may well be people governed

by rationality they quite obviously cannot make up the bulk of those

living or such illogical random acts of cruelty and evil , such as the

Holocaust, could not occur. Ardrey makes statements that there is a

natural instinct for man to be aggressive. Indeed this may be true, as

it explains the behavior of the Nazi executioners. Without some sort

of murderous tendency it would not be possible to kill that many

defenseless people. Skinner’s opinion that the actions of a man are a

direct result of his surrounding situations effectively explains the

reasons for the Holocaust happening. The surrounding conditions of

economic depression and a general anti-Semitic attitude enabled

Germans to accept something that they would abhor under other

circumstances. Providing the hatred of the Jews was not an accepted

attitude, Hitler would not have been able to implement his “Final

Solution”.

In actuality it would seem that none of the philosophers that

deal with human nature are entirely correct. Instead a combination is

probably true. Maybe some people are evil by nature, but there is a

great enough population of logical, good people to normally keep the

general attitude of a neutral nature. It is when those of a warlike

nature come to power that such an evil policy as genocide may be

instituted. yet another 9-12th grade Holocaust essay:

More facts give more answers, which lead to more questions.

Unlike the first set of readings, which could have been stories that I

have heard before, most of the facts expressed here were completely

new to me. I have always been taught that the world stood idle while

the Nazis proceeded to slaughter the Jewish people. Never, however,

were the stories of those who stood up, those who did what is the

humanly right thing to do, told to me. Bravery should not have been a

factor. People should have reacted despite of their fear if they saw

the slaughter of an entire group of people for truly no reason.

Unfortunately this was not true. The goodness of those who did

something, such as Father Lichtenerg and King Christian X of Denmark,

should be acknowledged, not as acts of superhuman kindness, but as

acts of a human level when the rest of the world was acting with sub-

human passivity.