Lessons and Reactions to The Holocaust

The ‘First they came…’ story can somewhat be reflected in our world today. Many times, we don’t stand up for other people because we feel that it’s not our business and it’d be less trouble to not get involved. I think people would rather ignore practices that occur so they can get on with their lives; if they ignore it, they might not have such guilt on their consciences of not doing anything about it.

The holocaust offers many lessons that can be vital to us. One prime moral is that we should stand up or help those in need; we can’t ignore it and chances are, we’ll feel guilty knowing that we didn’t do anything about the problem. Next is that if you don’t stop someone or something at an early stage, it can lead to a disastrous result, (i.e. Hitler and his reign to power, along with his promised threats of exterminating Jews coming true). Additionally, another lesson to take from the Holocaust is that people will make excuses for something in their mind, and will stay stubborn because they won’t change their mind because of the fact that if they change their mind, they’ll have to deal with the fact that they were wrong the entire time (i.e. the non-Jewish German citizens who didn’t do anything to help their neighbors because they had the excuses that “it wasn’t wrong” and “they were to busy to think”). Furthermore, if people aren’t stopped, they’re going to continue doing what they’re doing, (i.e. the allies/other nations didn’t stop Hitler’s tactics and movements). Lastly, the Holocaust shows us that humans can have a huge impact on the rest of the world if they are given the chance and that people can be very inhumane and stubborn, (Hitler’s prejudice with Jews).

No, I don’t think the Holocaust was inevitable for several reasons. The first and foremost being that people could’ve stopped Hitler early on. When Hitler announced his plans to helping Germany, he mentioned ‘exterminating the Jews’, and people thought he was bluffing. They were so preoccupied with the state of the country and its economy to think about the consequences of choosing a leader like Hitler. They wanted change, and fast; they were willing to listen to a leader that would help them in their time of trouble. They were open to the ideas that would strengthen the country and were oblivious to what they thought didn’t matter as much. This lead to Hitler continuing his plan without much opposition. Another factor of stopping the Holocaust early on is the other countries in the world. The same way they could’ve stopped Germany from growing so strong, they could’ve investigated the moral problems in the actual streets of the country. They could’ve stepped up and have saved many lives, yet they sat back occupied with other importances that applied to them such as the economy and their own people. These are a couple of barricades that could’ve stopped the Holocaust, if not fully, then at least kept it at a much smaller scale.