April 18, 2014
The Holocaust is a very dark time in history and is very hard to learn about. It is very important and we have to learn about it. The Holocaust has had an immense impact on history perhaps equal to the impact of World War II. In the eight stages of genocide resource, it is very interesting how the steps are almost identical to what the Nazis did. The two most crucial steps in my opinion are the dehumanization and polarization, because without these the genocides would be impossible. I really like hearing about the resistance in the camps because it gives a sign of hope in something really dark. In the past I learned about a woman who delivered supplies to ghettoes and would pretend to have a baby with her and then sneak babies out of the ghettoes. To me, that was always a really powerful story. Whenever I learn or hear about stories of human mistreatment or killing, like the pows in Japan during World War II, I love to read about all the stories of resistance that go on in the camps. For me, this makes it a lot easier to learn the information because you can learn it through the good stuff rather than the bad. Even though I have seen it before, the videos of when the camps get liberated always disgusts me. It really shows you just how bad the conditions are and the video makes it real. The fact that human beings can do this to others is really disturbing. It leads back to step 8 of genocide, denial. No one wants to believe that people can dehumanize others and treat them worse than animals. It is a really dark part of human nature. The reason we need to study this stuff is so it never can happen again. If we forget the past then we can let the bad things happen again.
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I also found the Eight Stages of Genocide and the ways it connected with the Holocaust very interesting. I agree with you that the steps of dehumanization and polarization are crucial in the making of a genocide; however, I think that the classification step is also important since it begins to separate the two groups. The story of the woman sneaking the babies out of the ghettos is very inspiring. I also enjoy hearing of resistance stories; it is nice to know that some people were brave and strong enough to stand up to the Nazi regime. I agree with you that no one wants to believe that people can cause so much damage, resulting in denial of what occurred. However, I think that now, with modern technology, it is harder to deny what atrocities happen in the world. Interesting post!
ReplyDeletegood job! I think that its interesting how some degrees of the Stages can come out of order, in contrast to the 8 Stage Order proposed in the article. While the Nazis did follow it exactly step by step, I think the internment of Japanese Americans in America followed a stranger approach. There was definitely a 'us' vs. 'them' mentality, along with racial segregation and stereotyping and cruelty. But the American government's internment of the Japanese in camps was not done in order to exterminate, nor was there any planning to exterminate them (to our knowledge). Also, I agree with you that resistance from the camp prisoners is very inspiring, considering they were in some of the worst conditions ever endured in a genocide situation. I think it would be easy for alot of people to lose hope and give up completely, but they didn't.
ReplyDeleteI really like your last point. Everyone wants to think that we humans are incapable of such actions against other of our race. Unfortunately it happens with some frequency, North Korea is a good example of something along the same lines as the Holocaust (even though it is not targeting a specific people but more "enemies" of the state) that is happening now. I strongly agree with the fact that we have to remember what happened in the past so we can make sure it doesn't happen again, because history does indeed repeat itself. Overall a very interesting post though. Great Job.
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