| Holocaust I had a hard time making myself sit down and write this paper. The Holocaust is hard to write about, hard to think about. This for two reasons, one I have so many feelings about it and they are all too hard to transcribe, two it�s painful to think about, and impossible to understand. I can only find one thing that ties the whole Holocaust together and that is humanness. Terrible things happen everyday, rape, murder. And though these things are horrible there is some sort of justification. The offender had serious mental problems� but the offenders in the Holocaust had no justification in my mind. I don�t understand how so many people could participate in such a catastrophe. It�s frightening to think that somewhere in the human psyche there is the capacity to be so cruel and to slaughter so many. And for what? Was it greed and money? The perfect race? Where they scared into submission? Born instincts of cruelty? How could they all feel this way? I don�t understand how anyone could stand by and watch, let alone participate in Genocide. How could they all be so inhumane? Or is it, how could they be so human? Thrown together, millions of people, all of a sudden one person. A Jew? Not even that anymore, a prisoner. Somehow they had to cope, somehow they had to live. And all of a sudden they weren�t even prisoners anymore, they were just beings, struggling to survive. Yet somehow, no matter how terrible the conditions got, they lived, and it took every bit of humanness left in them. When a piece of bread was the line between life and death they kept going. When it would have been so easy to lay down and give up, something in them told them they had to keep going. And they lived for each other and gave everything for each other and when some survived they all survived because they had all become one person. Some of the survivors told their story, and they had to so everyone would remember that one person that had been tortured and kept in a cage. Some lost their faith, some kept their faith. I�m going to be perfectly frank, I understand this least of all. How could anyone keep their faith, not just the Jews, but anyone keep their faith after the Holocaust? How could anyone believe there is a merciful God while babies are burning in ovens? If there is a God I�d rather not worship Him if he�s that type. Or maybe he was on a holiday� Again it�s the humanness, something makes us believe because we want to, have to. I don�t like thinking about the Holocaust because it makes me look at myself as a human. It makes me ashamed of myself. How can I complain about not getting to sleep in, how can I complain because I don�t like dinner, complain about gym while I have a bed to sleep in, food to eat, and an education at hand? I would lay awake for a long time thinking about the Holocaust, just as I was almost asleep an image would shake me awake. Why can�t I sleep? Why, when I know there is nothing I can do about it, wish I could suffer for all those people? Humanness. There is too much to cover. Too many people suffered to hurt for them all. Time passed (past) and the Holocaust slipped from my thoughts, left my dreams. Maybe that�s why this paper was so hard to get around to writing. I didn�t want to bring it all up. I know that is why we have to keep bringing it up. As humans we forget and when we forget we repeat. And if not that we have to remember because it�s the least we can do. Too bad after its too late we decide its time to stop turning a blind eye and take control of our humanness. |