The Holocaust :: European Europe History

HolocaustThroughout the movie, The Holocaust, the phrase, I just do my job, was usually the only excuse roughly people who act crimes against the Jews could come up with. For example, when Helena and Rudy Weiss were staying in Kiev, the city was bombed. During the bombing, one of the Nazi soldiers, who happened to be Heinz Muller, a friend of Ingas family, was hit by falling debris. Hesitant, Rudy helped Muller lose from the collapsing building, gave him some water, and asked him why he was taking part in the mistreatment of the Jews. I obey orders, Muller replied, unrepentant close what he did. Also, when Bertha Weiss was sent to the gas put up in Auschwitz, Dr. Joseph Weiss asked the Kapo what happened to her. The lady bluntly retorted, Dont blame me, I just take orders. Whether to keep a job, remain loyal to their cause, or just because they had no opposite excuse, everyone used that phrase to justify what they did wrong against the Jews. Anti-Semitism and unfair grudges are two factors that can cause Genocide. During the movie, Eric Dorf claimed he did not feel bad about Kristallnacht or what happened to the Jews, because he said the Jews provoked it. Even though Kristallnacht was the first major pogrom, a government sponsored attack on the Jews, and was terribly destructive, Eric said that they killed the Nazarene and they deserved what they got (The Holocaust). In addition, Heydrich believed that Germans and the Aryan race was superior to the Jewish race and they had to isolate the germ carriers (The Holocaust), so he decided to go through with the see for Jewish ghettos. The ghettos were intended to hold the Jews in a temporary Jewish community until they could be efficiently exterminated. This demonstrates how Anti-Semitism and grudges can produce Genocide. In the video, Conversations With Oprah Elie Wiesel, Wiesel explains that the most important lesson to be learned from what happened during the Holocaust is to not be indifferent, but to still be human in spite of everything that happened. He said he believed that the opposite of love is not hate, but rather indifference, because indifference can not be fought (Conversations). Not being indifferent is important in preventing some other Holocaust in the future. When you have a choice to make and you dont make it, that in itself is a choice, William James once said.