EDF 2085 Reflection #15

Jackie Lawrence
EDF 2085
Reflection Paper #15

Throughout world history, the most horrific display of anti-Semitism, or maybe even prejudice in general, occurred in Nazi Germany during World War II. Under Adolf Hitler’s regime, from January 30th, 1933 until May 8th, 1945, six million Jews were annihilated, along with a variety of other “inferior” groups of people. Segregation turned into destruction, physical attack, and ultimately, massacre. The ethnocentrism of many German citizens and their belief in their “master race” justified their appalling behaviors, which included sterilization, imprisonment, euthanasia, and mass extermination of innocent people. The Germans who disagreed with Hitler’s prejudicial actions lacked the courage to fight back, mostly out of fear for their own lives. We probably still don’t fully comprehend the full magnitude of how this tragedy has affected our world, its people, and the future.
Everybody has been affected. August Hirt, a Nazi doctor closely related to the gassings of those in concentration camps, eventually committed suicide. Hitler’s Armaments Minister, Albert Speer, was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. A sick man, he refused to divulge much of his inside knowledge in order to escape the death penalty. Many other people deny the Holocaust even existed. Advocates of the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory believe that the Nazis had no intention of mass extermination. To them, the Jews deserved what happened because under Stalin’s regime, Christians were exterminated on an even larger scale. And mainstream historical beliefs as to how many Jews were actually killed is blown way out of proportion. In my eyes, to misrepresent, ignore, or minimize the events that occurred is to prove just how much ignorance and prejudice can cloud perspective. How could one of the most terrible crimes in history be downsized and disrespected? I would like to think these people are suffering from the psychological defense mechanism repression because they can’t bear to deal with their true emotions on the topic. Unfortunately, I think prejudice is at the heart of their reasoning. And this just goes to show that if we don’t learn from the past and this horrendous social problem persists, history could possibly repeat itself.