I read the book, Holocaust by Gerald Green last month.  It was very poignant, powerful and disturbing.  While it was a work of fiction, I felt what it was like to live in Germany during those years.  After reading this, I am again reminded how fortunate I am to live in a relatively conflict-free area.

In school, we learned about the holocaust but it wasn’t in great detail.  I could never really understand how a whole nation could get it into their heads that they are the superior race and all other races had to be eliminated.  This book has really opened my eyes to the holocaust, both from a soldier and a Jew perspective.

The book gave some background into how relatively good people can be corrupted into changing their whole mindset.  How ordinary people look the other way when others are subjected to terror because they cannot afford to sacrifice their own way of life.  It also showed how much courage some people had and how they fought even if this would ultimately cause them harm or even death.

I don’t really know who to blame for what happened in Europe during those years.  On one hand you could say they the soldiers, the officers, the police, the people, had no choice.  They had to follow orders or else they would experience grave consequences.  On the other hand, how could you live with yourself, with your conscience knowing that even if you don’t directly do harm, by not doing anything, you are letting evil happen.  You could also say, what’s the point of saving one life, one family when millions died.  Like the starfish, it matters to that family.

I can understand soldiers killing soldiers during war.  But to kill unarmed, naked civilians, that is really unforgivable.  Their only crime was being born a Jew.  We have no choice into what family, country or religion we are born.  Why is this a crime?

It also amazes me how Jews would willingly follow orders and think the best of the situation.  It is very admirable but at the same time sad.  They are able so survive on very little.  It was mentioned in the book that you only need very little to survive.  But even survival was not an option for most Jews.  Very few fought back and most just accepted their fate.

After reading this book, I question why people seem to not have learned anything from history.  The bombing and shooting in Norway shows that there are still people who feel that others have no right to live.  I don’t think racial discrimination will ever be totally eliminated no matter how politically correct people try to be.  However, being a bit biased is yards different from killing innocent people.  We should all try to be tolerant of each others’ beliefs.  We are all different and we all have things to learn from one another.  Live and let live.