Being Better

“The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank. After the Bible, it is the most widely read nonfiction book in the world. Which is also translated into 60 different languages. I remember reading this very book for my boards exam back in 2019. At first, I didn’t know the whole reason behind her diary being so famous. But I remember developing interest as I kept reading it. After reading her whole diary I started searching about her more and what I found nearly traumatized me. That’s when I came to know about the dark side of the history, “THE HOLOCAUST”.

For those who aren’t familiar with the term let me try to explain. The Holocaust also known as Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. For facts, around 6 million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population were murdered. The murders were carried out in pogroms and mass shootings, by a policy of extermination through labor in concentration camps, mainly Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka in occupied Poland. Reason? Anti-Semitism was one of the most fundamental cause of the Holocaust. It’s literal meaning is hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people. It is also called history’s oldest hatred. So during World War II, Hitler smashed the nation’s democratic institutions and transformed Germany into a war state intent on conquering Europe for the benefit of the so-called Aryan race. That’s when he started campaigning against the Jews in Europe. During a speech at the Reichstag on 30 January 1939, Hitler threatened “the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe”. And that’s exactly what he did. By the end of the war, around 3 quarters of the pre-war Jewish population survived the Holocaust in Italy and France, about half survived in Belgium,while only a quarter of the pre-war Jewish population survived in the Netherlands. In Eastern and south eastern Europe most of Bulgaria’s Jews survived the war,as well as 60% of Jews in Romania and nearly 30% of Jewish population in Hungary. Two-thirds survived in the Soviet Union. In Poland, the Baltic States, Greece, Slovakia and Yugoslavia close to 90% of Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their local collaborators. Throughout Europe,a few thousand Jews also survived in hiding, or with false papers as non-jews,hidden or assisted by non-jews who risked their lives to rescue Jews individually or in small groups. Several thousand Jews also survived by hiding in dense forests in Eastern Europe,and as Jewish partisans actively resisting the Nazis as well as protecting other escapees and in some instances, working with non Jewish partisans groups to fight against the German invaders.

You see, all this mass destruction was a result of hatred. Hatred that demolished everything. Hatred that resulted in separations of people from their loved ones in the most heinous way possible. Hatred that resulted in deaths and lifelong trauma to those who survived. You might be wondering how is that traumatizing right? Let me dig deep into the extents they went to dehumanise the jews. They didn’t just killed but tortured them, robbed their dignity, their loved ones, the basic human rights from them. And how did they do it? Well, while I was watching the interviews of some of the Holocaust survivors I sure was listening everything but my brain was not able to process it. I remember particularly watching one interview, her name was Tova Friedman. I remember her name because she was one of the few children below the age of 10 who survived the Holocaust. As soon as they reached their respective camps, there was a selection as to who will make it to the labor camp, rest all were gassed in the gas chamber. All the children, old people and people who did not look healthy were gassed within an hour of their arrival. They were shaved on the head, given dirty prison clothes to wear and they were starved. They worked 9 hours a day without any break. Most of the people died of starvation, many died of diseases, many were killed because the ss were in bad mood so they shot them, and many touch the electric fence because they couldn’t bear the pain of survival anymore and of course 10,000 people were killed in the gas chambers and crematorium per day. They used the crematorium to burn the dead bodies because there were just too many and a very little place in the camp in comparison. There are just so many reasons why they died. There were experiments that was carried out on twins. I don’t think I want to entertain this part of the whole thing on how they were treated as subhumans, tortured, or robbed of their dignity and loved ones.

All I need from all this is for people to acknowledge and remember. I know alot of people deny the holocaust, even though there are infinite evidences that it did happen. We cannot change it. We cannot undo the sin that has already been done. But the least we can do is to remember. Remember the ones who died and those who survived. Remember the people who lost their families and loved ones. Remember the reason why it happened and to make sure that it never happens again because IF YOU FORGET THE HISTORY, IT WILL REPEAT ITSELF.

In each of us, there is a little of all of us. Peace:)