The Holocaust was the worst crime against humanity in modern history. Millions of Jewish people and others were persecuted for who they were and what they believed, because of an authoritarian government(literally a fascist government) that felt to infiltrate their citizen’s basic rights and become an imperialist regime.
The Nazis, under the leadership of their Führer, Adolf Hitler, set up multiple concentration camps, across Germany and the land they occupied. The largest of these concentration camps was Auschwitz, in German-occupied Poland. One of the prisoners was Elie Wiesel, who survived the atrocity, went on to write about his experiences. One of his books is called “Night”, which is a memoir that details his emotional journey during this time.
From reading this book, I learned about another victim’s perspective about the Holocaust, how it was as much mental torture as it was physical torture, and how Elie Wiesel lost his entire family during the time he was at Auschwitz, from his book and his interview with Oprah Winfrey.
He talks in the interview about how all the victims of the Holocaust left with the expectation to be sent to a nice place but instead got sent to a concentration camp where they were tortured mentally and physically. In the book, he states how he saw people, including little children’s bodies being burnt to ashes, how he started doubting God, and how he felt like his soul had left his body. He states, He also mentioned how depressed he was where he was even considering taking his own life.
I hope that the message that resonates with today’s society is that humanity isn’t perfect and we need to keep a watchful eye on things that happen around the world because this type of thing could be happening right in front of us. Humans should recognize the first signs of an authoritarian government, and weaken that government before problems turn worse. Additionally, while not acting like imperialists, we should take a look at human rights violations around the world and be able to condemn them. For example, in China today, there is a mass genocide of Uighur Muslims (among other groups), were similar to the Holocaust, people are placed in concentration camps because of stereotypes about their culture and religion. As the United States depends a lot on China, they also depend a lot on the US. Therefore, the US should use its international political power to make sure that this problem is solved. And likewise, humanity should not let its past hold it back but be able to learn from it and make sure the past doesn’t repeat itself.
