The Holocaust also referred to as the Shoah is one of humanity’s highest crimes in human history. According to Kerti (2019, p. 1), the Holocaust was characterized by the killings of over six million people from the year 1933 to 1945 by Nazi Germany. Even though the Jews were the most affected individuals, other groups were also greatly affected by the event. These groups were targeted because of their sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnicity, and political views (Kerti, 2019, p. 1). According to an article by UNESCO (2020) on “#WeRemember: Why we must never forget the Holocaust,” they include the Roma ethnic from India, the Jehova Witness religion, disabled individuals, and homosexuals. Individuals were subjected to killings and incarcerations because of opposing Nazis’ Ideologies.

The Holocaust was started by Hitler, who instilled fear in German people through political unrest and poor economy. When Hitler took charge of the government and military, he normalized hatred and discrimination among the people. It led to the Jewish people being killed because they did not conform to his ideologies.  Kerti (2019, p. 1) posits that people were forced into forced labor. Families were separated through transit in trucks, clothes were torn off, leading to a lack of pride and dignity in society, and also children were torn away from their mothers. All this was attributed to the fact that the Rona of Indian origin lived distinctly by strictly following their unique tradition and culture (UNESCO, 2020). Despite living together for many years, it made the European community feel they were not part of them. The phenomenon led to the rise of racism and discrimination that Nazis capitalized on to destroy the Jewish people and wipe out their heritage and culture (UNESCO, 2020). At the same time, other groups, like the Roma, were heavily persecuted.

Humanity Lessons from the Holocaust

Historical events like the Holocaust offer a lot of lessons to humanity that can never be forgotten. In picking these lessons, the focus is on the genocide perpetrators and the victims of the acts they were subjected to. The first lesson from this history is that we should not consider others less human (Zapalska & Wingrove-Haugland, 2016, p. 4). The Nazi Germans instilled fear in Germany’s people by portraying the Jews’ other groups as less-humans, which led to them being discriminated against based on their color and culture.  It led to the Jews being subjected to forced labor, killings, humiliation in public, and their families being torn apart.

Secondly, I learned that evil exists in the world. During the Holocaust, many evils were done to the Jews and other groups based on their sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnicity, and political views (Kerti, 2019, p. 1). The Nazis performed various evil acts, like killing the Jews and other groups like the Rama, because they did not conform to their ideologies. Fear is an evil aspect that was also spread by Hitler, who influenced the Germans to control the government and military, which facilitated his evil acts upon the Jews.

The third lesson I have learned from the Holocaust is that racism and discrimination started a long time ago. In the United States of America, we face a lot of racism and discrimination in society. We experience this a lot through the African Americans and the Whites, where one group sees themselves as superior to others. According to UNESCO (2020), racism and discrimination were perpetuated by the European community during the Holocaust. They viewed the Jewish people and other groups as not part of them despite living together for many years. Something that we are still experiencing in the US today. Lest we forget the Holocaust, we might end up the same way.

The fourth lesson is that those we have lived within society for many years can still do evil things or more harm than good (Zapalska & Wingrove-Haugland, 2016, p. 4). I cannot forget that Hitler and the Nazis easily influenced Germans. Who made them kill those Jews that they had lived with together for a long time? Just because they practiced their culture and heritage differently from them, it should be a lesson to us that we should learn to co-exist in society despite our different backgrounds and cultures.

The fifth lesson is that we should always resist; there are no innocent bystanders in wars. (Zapalska & Wingrove-Haugland, 2016, p. 4). Over six million people were killed during the Holocaust. Of those killed, children were also involved. Brutal beatings and murder also subjected children who are viewed as innocent beings in society by individuals they considered neighbors and friends.

Resistance is also another lesson picked from the Holocaust. Despite the Jewish people being subjected to harsh conditions from the Nazis like beatings, killings, and racism. They tried their best to resist these acts by engaging the Nazis in war as a way of protecting their families. It calls us to resist what we view as unfair to us and what we believe in.

Finally, the most important lesson that can avoid the Holocaust is tolerance. It implies that we should all appreciate and tolerate our unique culture and heritage in society. We should also acknowledge our different beings regarding their sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnicity, and political views (Kerti, 2019, p. 1). It will assist us in accommodating each other in society.

I cannot rule out the possibility of one person being responsible for the horrors of the Holocaust. From 1933 to 1945, Hitler was known as a propagandist and an individual who liked promoting himself. It made him instill fear by using Germans’ threats to take for him to take control of Germany. After taking charge of the military and the government, he started brutalizing the Jews and other groups that did not conform to his ideologies. From this, we can learn to be cautious with individuals we elect into office because they can use their influence and their selfish interests to insinuate conflict amongst us in the society that can lead to the Holocaust. It can also be successful by tolerating each others’ beliefs and culture.

In case there is an occurrence of a similar Holocaust today, the international community should intervene actively. Their intervention will help control or stop the acts perpetrated by the collaborators against the targeted groups. By doing so, they will be championing the human rights of the targeted groups that deserve to be treated with respect and dignity despite their race, sexuality, religion, and ethnicity. The international community should not just stand and watch as another Holocaust happens. Many countries just watched hopelessly as Hitler and the Nazis committed genocide against the Jewish people and other groups.

During the Holocaust, many Nazis approved the genocide as they accepted orders to conduct Jewish people’s inhuman acts. The Nazis subjected the Jewish people to suffer the rage of the death or labor camps because they were gay, a Jehova witness, a priest, a political opponent, and maybe a black person. They had no boundaries on whoever they were killing or brutalizing.

The Holocaust can entirely be blamed on the phenomenon that Hitler spread fear and hatred amongst the Germans. Hitler is known for propaganda and their self-interest in being the leader of the government, which made him influence the German people to hate and discriminate against the Jewish people and other groups of people based on their sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnicity, and political views (Kerti, 2019, p. 1). His sole objective was to control the military and the governments, which enabled him to enhance his powers by ordering the Nazis to kill, brutalize, separate families, and employ forced labor on the Jewish people.

The American Indian holocaust should be remembered because these are Indians who came to America and assimilated into Native Americans. They settled well in American society and lived in harmony with others. But they were brutally slaughtered because of their color (black). Their religion differed from the rest; they continued practicing their culture. All these made other Americans view them as less human. The injustices the American Indians went through because of their religion, race, and culture should guide us in fighting this cancer in our society to avoid another holocaust from happening. According to Fixico (2018), civilization was used to eradicate Indian Americans by practicing ancient culture and weird religions. It was characterized by young girls being kidnapped and taken captive by the whites. As part of enforcing civilization, the US government initiated war with its native people, the Indians. It was catalyzed by white Europeans who had failed to secure land outside America, so they were back with “hunger” to grab the Indian’s land. These indigenous Indians in America still practiced their religion, and their spiritual practices were beyond the Americans’ understanding (Fixico, 2018). They were also speaking their foreign language. It led to many of them being massacred and barred in mass graves because of the genocide. All these acts against the Indian Americans should be remembered to teach others what led to the American Indian holocaust. We will be introducing others to be tolerant of each other by respecting others’ race, religion, sexuality, and ethnicity and therefore avoiding another holocaust.

The above discussion clearly shows how individuals or individuals can decide to spread fear for the betterment of their selfish interests. People living in peace and harmony can easily be influenced to hate and discriminate against their neighbors and friends based on their sexuality, race, religion, and ethnicity to the extent of being harmful and killing them. The society also has individuals that can sit and watch their neighbors and friends being tortured. That is why they stand to resist those practices being perpetrated by others. We should always strive to tolerate others and live in peace and harmony to avoid another holocaust. That is why the US considers Israel as their closest ally since they intervened in the Holocaust. Hence making the holocaust never to be forgotten.

References

Fixico, D. L. (2018, March 2). When Native Americans Were Slaughtered in the Name of ‘Civilization’. History.com. https://www.history.com/news/native-americans-genocide-united-states.

Giberovitch, M. (2020, July 13). Holocaust Survivors Share 15 Life Lessons We Can Apply To The COVID-19 Pandemic. YouAreUNLTD. https://www.youareunltd.com/2020/03/24/holocaust-survivors-share-life-lessons-for-covid19/.

Kerti, J., L. (2019) Exhibiting Forensic Archaeologically-Derived Holocaust Data Through Virtual Heritage Technologies: An Ethical Perspective. Doctoral thesis, Staffordshire University.https://eprints.staffs.ac.uk/id/eprint/5818

UNESCO. (2020, February 4). #WeRemember: Why we must never forget the Holocaust. UNESCO. https://en.unesco.org/news/weremember-why-we-must-never-forget-holocaust.

Zapalska, A. M., & Wingrove-Haugland, E. (2016). Learning the Lessons of the Holocaust: A Case Study of the USA CoastGuard Academy. Journal of Defense Management, 6(2), 1–6. https://doi.org/https://www.longdom.org/open-access/learning-the-lessons-of-the-holocaust-a-case-study-of-the-usa-coastguard-academy-2167-0374-1000148.pdf