And I Said Nothing
In Germany they first came for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionist, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.
TASK: Write personal reflection on the atrocities of the Holocaust and how it has (or hasn’t) changed the world.
Keep these questions in mind:
• Who is to blame for the Holocaust?
• Could the Holocaust have been stopped?
• How to the "Stages of Isolation" show the gradual persecution leading to the annihilation of the Jews?
• What would you have done if you lived in Germany during the Third Reich?
• How does the passage "And I Said Nothing" portray the actions of the people in Germany during Third Reich? What is the danger in saying or doing "nothing"?
• What lessons must be learned from the Holocaust?
• How do we, as responsible and aware human beings, ensure that an event such as the Holocaust or any type of racial genocide never occurs again?
• Do you think we have “learned our lesson” from the Holocaust, use examples to support your point of view from more recent history
To view some images from the Holocaust click the following links.
http://www.phdn.org/histgen/schmitz/indexeng.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/phototoc.html
18 comments:
The Holocaust made a huge impact on todays society. Through schooling we all have learned what trully happened and this horrible event will not be forgotten. The German records make it hard to ignore for those wishing to turn a blind eye, and bring a reality to the unspeakable things they did. The World has to learn from their mistakes and not become the bystanders ever again as they were during that time.
H.B.
Period - 1
I believe the Holocaust has temporarily changed the world's opinion on humanity genocide. When The allied forces came and brought the concentration camps to justice, they were in awe of what state the Jewish people were in. They couldn't believe what had been done to them, and promised something to this magnitude would never happen again. Although, it did. As we see in some third-world countries today, the same discrimination in happening as during the Holocaust. Certain groups are being targeted like the Darfur region. Their towns and houses are being burned, looted, and they are being killled. Now does this not seem like deja vu? We as a world, said genocide would never happen again, and we would step in to help whatever minority was being targeted. This promise is slowly being broken as we age, and forget about the last generation of the Holocaust. Is it human nature to 'say nothing' if oneself is not being a target? Is it possible for us to stand by while numbers of people are being killed. As shown in WW2, it is true that we value our own lives over humanity? Do we really need another Holocaust to remind us of the horrors 'standing by' can produce?
A.R.
Period -1
I think the Holocaust was a horrible thing in the world's history. The Nazi's and Hitler were horrible people and should have been stopped. The rest of the people in the world should have paid more attention and investigated Germany more in WWII and they are partly to blame for everything that happened. It is horrible that the Jew's on the St. Louis were turned down country after country I think the world has not been affected by the Holocaust in the long term. It has changed the world so that people will never do that again, and, hopefully if it does happen people will rise up to stop it. It hasn't changed how the world thinks about it though. People are still doing the same thing but on a lesser extent.
B.M P1
The dead... The living.. They were the same. Whether they were walking around or being burned or thrown in the pits. They were all dead on the inside, and their bodies may as well have parrished. It's the worlds fault this happened. We took no one into our countries and left all the Jewish people in Germany to die. We have learned some lessons from the Holocaust but not all. We eventually started bringing in immigrants but gave them no rights. Even at that we did not allow all immigrants in within reason. If the person is unable to work and would be nothing but a burden on our society than there would be no reason to accept them, but if they were able bodied and had money we should have allowed them. In the case of the jewish people we should have allowed them the escape route of North America. After the war was over we could have sent them back to their homes.
Even after this insane slaughter of people we still would not help other countries in later years when they had genocide. Rwanda for example, many people were slaughtered because they weren't of a certain tribe and we stood there and watched it happen. We need to engage ourselves in more of these global atrocities. We call ourselves peacekeepers... Time to live up to the name Canada.
P-1 S.E
For a while, the holocaust changed the world. People decided that it can't happen again and swore that they would stop it. But after a few years, the world started to forget. There have been similar things starting to happen again. We can't forget the lessons that were learned from the holocaust. The most important lesson is to not stand by when it happens like people did when the holocaust happened. If I lived in Germany during the Third Reich I don't know if I could have done anything to stop it so I think all of the other countries should help. The way we are forgetting about the holocaust I think it will take another major incedent to make people remember forever.
RJ P1
The holocaust has changed the world in some aspects. As a whole most people in the world believe that it's wrong to persecute anyone based on their race, religion or ethnicity, but there have still been genocides that have occured that people haven't really done a lot about. The holocaust did open a lot of peoples eyes to things like human rights and morally whats right and wrong; but a lot of people will still turn the other way if something doesn't personally affect them or someone they know. In my own opinion, I don't think countries are really doing enough to get involved. We are now taught in school what lead up to that, how something horrible like that could happen, and what changed in the world as a result; but human rights are things that everyone deserves to have, but countries aren't doing enough to make sure that people have basic rights.
KR.
Period: 1.
The holocaust has been something that really chaged the world, in the short term the holocaust changed peoples ideas and infuenced there opinions on jewish people. The holocaust showed how some people wont step up to try and help the jews since they were no0t jews. So many people just sat back and watched the jewish people die, since they were not jewish themself. The passage "And I said nothing" portrays the actions of the people in germany at the time, so many of them just sat back and watched, because they werent german. There are many lessons to be learned from the holocaust, such as people need to stand up for the rights of others, even though they might not be of the same religion, you need to imagine yourself in the same postion and think if you would like these things happening to you.
Gk
P1
The Holocaust was a massive tragedy and something that all people should be ashamed of. Everyone is to blame for the Holocaust. No nation was willing to accept Jewish immigrants. Even the leaders of countries knew what was going on but decided not to intervene. The Holocaust probably could not have been stopped but the number that were imprisoned and killed could have been considerebly less. It is easy to look back on it now and say this because anti-semitism is less common and people could never think of doing such a horrific thing. But during the 1940's I'm sure that people were mored concerned with themselves and were afraid that if they spoke up that they could be sent to one of these camps too. People were more worried about themselves than people they had no relation to. Youy can see from the passage "And I Said Nothing", that people felt no need to help people that they were not related to. We need to learn to step up and make sure that such an event is stopped. That is easier said than done because some countries feel that their own problems are more important, stepping in might put their country in danger, and perhaps they just feel that is not a big deal. However, people need to understand the horrific events that occured and realize that sometimes you have to put the rights of other people ahead of your own wants and needs.
GO CANUCKS GO !!!!
H.G
period 1
The atrocities of the Holocaust are unspeakable, to know that we as humans are capable of such cruelty is utterly heartbreaking. While Hitler may have been the face of "evil" he was simply the embodiment of the "evil" that all mankind is capable of (to a lesser degree.) Sadly lessons may have been learned from the horrors comitted but we still stand by while genocide is being committed. It seems that a fundamental part of our nature is to diffuse our responsibilities throughout society and hope that someone else will take a stand while we keep our heads low. People seem to believe that they are civilized and orderly when really we are all savages controlling our selfishness and anger until a target is appointed for us to direct our animosity towards. I believe that while the past cannot be changed we need to learn from it and follow a sense of morality. The line between love an hate is very thin and that which can make us the epitome of "evil" can also make us compassionate and caring. Hitler may have been to blame but so is everyone else who simply turned the other cheek. We must not forget the past in order to progress in the future.
SR
Personally I believe that the horrific actions that occured years ago still do happen today, just are overlooked. We also still do nothing to help the people these actions may effect for the simple reason it may not effect us. We still see many groups being targeted around the world and many of us still doing nothing and instead just being bystanders. Right after the war, the Holocaust was seen as an awful inhumane act which noone could've dreamed would ever occur in history. Unfortunately, there are still people in the world who feel some groups are inferior and should be exterminated. More primal actions for extermination of groups for instance have been taken in Darfur, where rebels target innocent people just because they feel they are different. A similar act of genocide also occured in Rawanda. At first, I never knew that we as a country declined Jews when the requested to immigrate. After learning this it kind of makes you take a step back and realize that we were no better than the Nazi Germans. It really makes you wonder how the Holocaust would've changed had we let more people immigrate. Would loss been not as bad? Would Hitler have targeted Canada? So many questions to be asked without no definate way of knowing. However, I do feel we could've made a difference had we not just stood by.
P-1
E.P
The events that took place during the Holocaust haven't changed the world. Though the rest of the world likes to believe they weren't at fault the lack of action from the start allowed Germany's genocide to escalade. Soon after the war antisemitism continued, despite the wake up call to what such discrimination would lead to. Nothing has truly changed because of the holocaust and racial genocide has been occuring time and time again. We are more aware of our own prejudices now because of the holocaust and any leaders that gain power are scrutinized to avoid corrupt or crazy people leading a country.
LK
P-1
The Holocaust brought out the reality that people would rather sit back and do nothing as long as they aren't affected or they can benefit from it, even if the most horrific of actions are being taken place. So for a short time it did change the world, people had finally decided to step even though they weren't affected or had anything to be benefitted from it. But now we are slowly starting to back to the way it was. Either because there are tough times or because we live in a society that only cares about themselves. For example Rwanda where the world sat back and did nothing while people were being slaughtered. Overall events like the Holocaust will continue to go on througthout the world because nobody wants to deal with it.
L.T
Period 1
many people believe that the Holocaust is the cause of teh Nazi Party of Germany. In all reality the fault lies with the various nations of the world that refused to stand up for the Jewish people. Did the Holocaust actually change the world? No the Holocaust did not change how the world sees international crisis' such as geniside. The world refuses to get involve in affairs that do not directly affect them. Current events such as the Rwanada incident and Dafur are just part of the cycle. The world is stuck in the continuous cycle of mass murder, war and redemtions. Nothing has changed since the Holocaust. Did the Holocaust change the world? No it did not. The world is still the same as it was during WWII except the location of conflict has change. The world will stay the same unless the next generation chooses to do something.
Period 1
J.J
I think that the holocaust could have been stopped. People should have realized that they needed to speak up for one another, because if the Germans can get away with torturing and trying to get rid of one group then they will think that they can do the same thing to another and get away with it, and keep doing it until all groups they had a problem with were wiped out. But by standing up for each other and trying to protect one another this event probably wouldn’t have happened and if it did it would’ve been harder for the Germans to do. By not helping out the Jews and etc. the Germans were pretty much getting everything handed to them, and eventually there will be no individualism. I think that we learned a lesson from the holocaust and that lesson is to always stand up for each other, because combined you are much bigger than the opposing group and they can be stopped by a little bit of support, rather than not doing anything and things get out of control.
Blk A
PS
The Holocaust was absolutly revolting but the worst part is that it was stoppable. The Nazi's committed the crimes but we could have done something. In this day and age we should be growing and becoming a magture kind world but it seems as if we are going backwards.
The Holocaust made a very large impression on most people once the concentraationm camps were found and the war was over yet people just went right on with their lives it's like they say in Hotel Rwanda "People will watch and say oh that is so sad, but then they just go back to eating their dinner." The world was still very much antesymetic towards Jews even after WW2. Naturally we want to blame the Germans for what happened but we are the ones who sit back and let it happen, we are the ones that sit back and let it happen still today.
We say that it was a bad mistake to not help the Jews. That if something like that ever happened again we would deffinatly do more, but it is happening.. And we are doing nothing. It is crazy how evolved we humans think we are yet we are still brutallly murdering each other. We act more like vicious, untamed animals than the animals themselves.
The Holocaust changed the world for a time but mostly for the Jews and other people that were put into conncentration camps, not for us. People from conncentration camps went and did soemthing with their lives. They wrote amazing books and invented atom bombs, their lives were affected so much but the rest of the world just went on spinning in its slow lazy way.
Many want to change the world but don't. We don't have the time, money, ability. We convince ourselves we can't when in truth we can the only question is what?
APS
The Holocaust was an event that left the world with a variety of opinions. The blame for the Holocaust can be distributed to not only the German's but to other groups as well. Many lessons were learned form the Holocaust but not necessarily remembered.
In my opinion, I believe that most of the world was impacted by the Holocaust in the moment of it happening and they realized how wrong it was. As for the future I believe people are beginning to forget the horrible things that happened to the prisoners of concentration camps. We all stated that this type of treatment would never happen again, but as time went by the memories of the Holocaust began to fade, and similar actions are happening to certain groups today.
As for who should be blamed for the Holocaust, I think many people took part in it. Many people didn't contribute in the treacherous behavior but they didn't make the effort to put an end to it. In many ways bystanders were worse than the abusers because they could have stood up against them and stopped it.
Lessons were learned then, but should be remembered now. Many people are ignoring the fact that this was a real event and it was traumatizing. We must remember that this was not okay then and it isn't okay now, there is absolutely no need for it.
The Holocaust needs to remain a strong example of wrong doing. People may have different opinions on it, but this does not mean it should ever happen again.
JM
P-1
Many just simply put the blame on Hitler for the holocaust; however, my opinion was changed after learning about WWII and the holocaust. Countries and people that watched this horror take place and made no attempt to make a difference are just as much at blame. It is hard to predict if the Holocaust could have been stopped, but it is certain that an attempt could have been made. Countries, like Canada, restricted Jews from immigrating, in my thoughts, i believe that this would have been a essential first step that could have eventually made a difference or maybe even a stop to the Holocaust. If i were a German living during the third Reich, I would have probably been just as afraid and fearful of thinking differently. Although, I would have tried to gather people that thought and shared similar opinions, people who were in the same position as me and were afraid of being alone while standing up.
The passage, "And I Said Nothing", displays what happened when no one spoke up for the groups being attacked. Eventually, Hitler appeared to be running out of targets of one particular group, he started aiming for others. Sooner or later you would fall under one of these groups. It is better to speak up for others and risk it as I believe that others that share similar opinions will join you.
There are many lessons that should have been learned through this tragic event. However, similar genocides have taken place AFTER the Holocaust. In the 1990's, Bosnia and Herzegovina witnessed the Srebrenica Genocide. This ethnic cleansing took place during the Bosnian War. Another example is Rwanda which took place in 1994. The Rwandan Genocide resulted in an estimate of 800,000 lives. Such events will always continue to take place in life, but people should step up and fight for others even when they are not concerned. It could be that one day you are in the same place of someone in need now, if we help them they will help us to when we need it.
GB-Period 1
In theory, the Holocaust taught the world the horrific effects the targeting of a minority group can have, and the world vowed that never again would such an atrocity be allowed to occur. However, in reality this is definitely not the case, as genocide has occurred on more than one occasion in the world (such as in Rwanda and Darfur) and those who promised to never stand by and let a minority be persecuted did just that. As human beings, we have a peculiar tendency to step back and merely be witnesses when something is happening that we believe to be wrong. It is much easier to turn one's head and forget rather than actually do something about it, and that is exactly what the world has been doing since the Holocaust. When people look back on the Holocaust, they instantly think of Hitler and they blame him for the persecution of the Jewish people. But really, Hitler was one man, and only a handful of people fully supported his ideas. Many people knew that what Hitler was doing was wrong, and these people vastly outnumbered the Nazi party. But because these people were not affected personally, they became bystanders. If the world had taken a stand against the Nazis before the mass killings of the Jews began, the Holocaust could (and most likely would have been) prevented, but nothing in the beginning was done. Hitler, therefore, is not the one to blame for the Holocaust, but rather the whole world should take responsibility for this gruesome event in our history. Today, we have to look back on the Holocaust and realize that we are all to blame for what happened, and decide that in order to prevent it from happening again we must stand against the discrimination of minority groups. We have to understand that we cannot just turn our heads and forget when we see something wrong, whether is affects us directly or not, or we are us much to blame as the people doing it.
CM P-1
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