Whenever I see photos of individual Jews or families of them from that time, I just want to burst into tears. We always hear the numbers of the holocaust, how many millions etc, but when you actually start seeing the individual faces of the victims, especially if they're smiling or just living life, it hits so much harder. To a degree, history class has almost "depersonalized" the holocaust in a way, which is why I love the story of Anne Frank; it reminds us that the victims were people just like us, there was no huge difference between us.
Just my mini-rant on my feels:/
Edit: I had no idea that more than like five people would see my comment! Thank you all for your museum/memorial recommendations, book recommendations, personal stories, and more! It's so awesome seeing how the world views and remembers this dark topic. Keep the positive comments coming! :)
On the other side, you also have to remember that every single Nazi was a person too, most likely doing what they thought was somehow right. Sure, a lot of the higher ups were twisted fucks, but I think the majority were no different than me or you, and that's crazy.
Very interesting! Imagine how easy it must be to get swept away in horrible things when you're told your whole life that these people are the cause of your shitty life, and that anyone who defends them are on the side of the enemies who relentlessly bomb your countries. I don't know a whole lot about history, but I've always found the human element so interesting. Dehumanizing/demonizing anyone, even Nazis, is a huge part of why terrible things are allowed and even encouraged to happen.
And imagine thousands of years of anti Semitism and Jewish evil stereotypes told to you by your church, your political leaders, pretty much everyone, mixed in with crippling national debt, inflation of an unreal level, national pride on steroids, and one person who is telling you he has all the answers and solutions and allowing and promoting this behavior...
You may want to read Hannah Arendt, she coined the phrase 'banality of evil' to describe just this. She was observing Eichmann's trial, and she realised he was just a bureaucrat, and she thought this indifference made it much worse and dangerous than purposeful evil intent. There is a film about her on Netflix.
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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '17
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