Over the past couples weeks Ive been looking at different pieces of World War II literature and documentaries that focus primarily on Nazi concentration camps. Throughout my life I have been brought up learning about the Nazi’s from school to my grandfather telling stories of what it was like to live during that time period. I have also had the chance to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. as well as the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills Michigan, both of these museum lay a lasting imprint in my mind of the horrific indescribable concentration camps. Even so after watching Alfred Hitchcock’s compelling documentary which was banned directly after World War II by the British Government as too graphic for the publics view but was released a number of years later I still feel that initial shock of the images to disturbing for even my darkest nightmares. Even the great American General Dwight D. Eisenhower was lost for words when he came to face the atrocities of the conentration camps.
I have never felt able to describe my emotional reactions when I first came face to face with indisputable evidence of Nazi brutality and ruthless disregard of every shred of decency. Up to that time I had known about it only generally or through secondary sources. I am certain, however that I have never at any other time experienced an equal sense of shock .”Crusade in Europe,” Dwight Eisenhower, pp. 408-9″
We ask how can such things take place? We feel sadness, then anger, then sorrow as we try to comprehend what could compel a human being to such cruelties? We say nothing like this could ever happen again, nothing like this will happen again, but still we see genocide in Rwanda during the 1990′s and in Sudan in 2004. Even more recent and close to home is the issues of torture and abuse during the Bush administrations “War on Terror”. We shake our heads at the civilians living in germany during WWII who claimed they knew nothing about the concentration camps yet the majority of Americans dont have a clue as to what is going on within our own government and the “War on terror” This brings me to my main question, what are “we” as a society doing to prevent these types of travesties?
I have to state that I still have the same shock of remembering those images from the documentary just as you. Every time I have read about the Holocaust (which admittedly has been a lot during these past few weeks of reading “Maus” and “Survival in Auschwitz) I immediately flash back to the images which were captured in the documentary. They were so vivid and even though I was born 43 years after the war was over I can still feel a tremendous sense of guilt and remorse for those people who perished at Hitler’s hand. It is inconceivable that there are people in the world who could actual deny that this travesty occurred. There are people still alive who endured and survived who can recount their stories. There are video tapes and recorded radio interviews with the survivors who would detail word for word their experience. After hearing these and witnessing these how could anyone believe these ex-prisoners were lying? There is nothing we can do to undo what happened to that however we can try to stop it from ever occurring again by simply remembering. If these memories stay in every single persons mind around the world, if the images such as those presented in the Hitchcock documentary, those who are humane will prevent such a horrific situation from ever coming about again.
I to have had the opportunity to go to Holocaust musuem in Farmington Hills, both at their old location and then in their new facility. During both visits I was completely overwhelmed at the attrocity, utterly horrified and speechless the entire time. I also heard the stories of two different survivors that had to live through the hell that was Auschwitz, but nothing I had seen or heard could have prepared me to face the images presented in the Alfred Hitchcock documentary. The expressions seen on the faces of the German citizens really drove home the fact that this was indeed real, and that this was done by other human beings, the same basic organism as myself. I agree that people don’t know what goes on, or what is happening with our own government, another instance of this ignorance is the detainment of Japanese-Americans during WWII by the American Government. To this day not many people are aware that that occured, but that doesnt excuse the fact that they didnt know, we need to know what happens around us.
“Even more recent and close to home is the issues of torture and abuse during the Bush administrations “War on Terror”. We shake our heads at the civilians living in Germany during WWII who claimed they knew nothing about the concentration camps yet the majority of Americans dont have a clue as to what is going on within our own government and the “War on terror” This brings me to my main question, what are “we” as a society doing to prevent these types of travesties?”
I think that the largest thing that our society is doing and can do is increase awareness or what is going on in the world or at least in our own country. It think that the US is a very different place that Nazi German and I like to think that the voice for dissent against our government will always be strong enough to prevent something like the Holocaust from happening, however it is hard to say. When you look right after Sept. 11, Bush’s approval rating reached 90% the highest for a president in US history. It was then that Bush implemented some of the policies like water boarding and the Patriot Act that would later come to haunt his administration, yet at the time they were seen as justified and no one doubted the president’s ability to lead in the time of crisis or doubt that what he was doing was right in necessary.
One can draw parallels between this and the Japanese internment camps during WWII or the blacklisting of liberals during the cold war. I think it is exactly at times like these that our country is most vulnerable, and it is in the most need of passionate opposition to the status quo.
Unfortunately it seems that the United States is not doing a great deal to prevent these atrocities from occurring. We stand aside an allow these things to continue even after they are brought to our attention. It seems that no one wants to get involved anymore. This is even a problem societally as just recently I heard on the news that a young woman was raped at her homecoming dance and there were people that walked by and allowed the horrible act to continue. I think another big question we should be asking ourselves is why is it that everyone is so scared to do the right thing? How is it that people can be murdered and their be witnesses that did nothing to prevent it (many times they wont even call the police)? I think that as a society we need to address these issues so that when atrocities are happening globally the people of the United States will be more receptive to helping their neighbors of the world. Until people start caring about the people around them they will not be able care about what is happening with the rest of the world.
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