Reflection #15

The Holocaust is a prime example of genocide. Adolf Hitler was against Jews; he dehumanized them and deprived them of everything they were worth. He turned Germany against them, resulting in extermination-genocide of the Jews. Its ridiculous how many people could be influenced to disobey any morals they may have, and do the unimaginable. Their thoughts are corrupted by prejudice.

The eight stages of genocide are classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial. This happened in the holocaust. First, everyone was classified by their ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality. Then, the Jews were symbolized as the Jews. Next, Hitler dehumanized the Jews. After dehumanizing the Jews, Hitler organized his own government. Hitler separated the Jews from the rest of society, and made them were a Jewish symbol. Hitler prepared to exterminate all Jews. I don’t know if Hitler did or did not deny what he did.

There are books, documentaries, pictures, videos, concentration camps, and even holocaust survivors. How can anyone deny an event in history with so much evidence that it happened. I assume the people who refuse to believe the holocaust didn’t happen must want some attention and/or money. These people must be messed up psychologically. Some people believe the facts about the holocaust are exaggerated or made up, despite all the proof.

There are certain individuals who publicly announced they do not believe the holocaust happened. Some of them wrote books, made a speech, etc. Because I am not a denier I have no idea how they can deny something with so much proof. If they believe in God I would be surprised. It takes faith to believe in something you don’t see. On the other hand, maybe the deniers weren’t educated on this topic. Who really knows? What is the core of their disbelief, how could they deny history. It is a terrifying event. One of my History teachers said, we must learn history, so we can prevent it from happening again. The problem is the world keeps repeating itself with different situations.