What Does The Holocaust Mean to You?

[Eggsnham]

I ask this question because I just came back from an event in which a survivor from 3 different concentration camps including the infamous Auschwitz talked about his life in a concentration camp.

I'd always been very affected by the Holocaust and Japan's Unit 731, because I'm a pacifist and a Humanitarian and just generally do not like violence. But this man's story was just so intense and he had a way of putting you right there on the trains between camps and in the rat ridden barracks that millions of Jewish people were forced to sleep.

It was intense, as I have mentioned at least one other time in this thread.

It was also a learning experience, because even though I've studied things like the Holocaust extensively, there's still no better way to learn about an event than to learn firsthand.

This leads me to my question, what does the Holocaust mean to you? And what do the other genocides happening right now, today, mean to you?

I'd add a poll, but one can only expect a poll with eight options to cover a small fraction of opinions on something like the Holocaust and genocide in general.

Personally, I believe that we'd better focus soon on stopping any existing genocides and learn our mistakes from history so as to prevent any more senseless and useless killing of innocent people.

Also, this man was a survivor from Schindler's List, where a guy name Oskar Schindler managed to rescue hundreds of Jewish people from a concentration camp in Poland.

EDIT: It was "Oskar" with a "K" and he saved about 1,200 Jews.

 

[delet]

To me, the Holocaust is my one-up on black people, allowing me to win a racial argument against 'em...

I've been forced to learn all about the Holocaust several times over throughout my life, even more so because I'm Jewish, and it's starting to get annoying. Yes, many people died. I get it! Now stop reminding me and leave my to enjoy my pudding.

 

[Instant K4rma]

It just shows me how far people will really go. Hitler, for example. He is willing to wipe out a whole generation of people just because he believes them to be "impure". That boggles my mind. The fact that he can live with himself knowing that he's wiping out people by the millions. Whats more disturbing is that not only can he live with it, he saw nothing wrong with it at all. It just goes to show how sick and twisted humans can become.

It's really fuckin' startling when I think about it.

 

[Always_Remain]

Just a lovely glance at how fucked humanity is since we've barely learned from it. Or maybe I'm just a cynic. Is that the right word?

 

[Kollega]

The original reason why we hate Nazis, and a grim reminder of what racism and totalitarianism can lead to. For someone who thinks all sapient life is equal, this is one of the most horrible atrocities one can commit - if not the single most horrble one.

 

[Good morning blues]

The world learned pretty much nothing from the holocaust. We did diddly-shit to stop genocides that we knew were happening in Rwanda and Darfur, and the same thing looks set to happen again in southern Sudan.

Everybody is very fond of flowery rhetoric and bold, sweeping statements that it must never happen again and we must be vigilant and blah blah blah but when it comes down to it we're all talking out our asses. The United Nations is a broken organization that has no power to prevent the ultimate crime even when it has proof that it's taking place. Unless the world is willing to make massive changes to the structure of major international institutions, we're just going to keep repeating the cycle.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

An example of the crazyness that lies deep within the human mind it was horrible and just disgusting.

 

[Pingieking]

I find the Holocaust to be interesting from a psychological perspective. How the hell did all those Germans become totally convinced that killing Jews was the right way to go?
However, I quite disliked the North American treatment of high school WW2 history, with it being completely Euro-centric. Unit 731 (and about 98% of the war in the Orient) was not mentioned at all. They never even talked about China actually participating in the war (when they were actually one of the first participants).
At least we got a good number of those Nazi assholes. Can't really say the same for the crazy Japs.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Holocaust - total destruction by fire

As for the Holocaust, it's a black stain on human history. It may be unpleasant to think about but irresponsible to ignore, we should try to prevent such atrocities from ever happening again. They will happen again regardless.

 

[Wildrow12]

The Holocaust is both a demonstration of the cruelty and depravity that can spring forth from the human mind, and a testament to the compassion, strength, and courage which rises from the human spirit.

Even amongst the evil unleashed by Hitler's "Final Solution", there are stories of those who gave up their property, safety, and their very lives to save strangers.

 

[AvsJoe]

This leads me to my question, what does the Holocaust mean to you? And what do the other genocides happening right now, today, mean to you?

The Holocaust was a series of hugely immoral decisions by fucked up people that led to the slaughter of millions of innocent people to achieve a very inhumane goal. But it's the past and has just as much effect on me as reading about Genghis Khan's campaign across the known world or slavery in the US. These were horrible events that I'm glad are over but I don't think about them any more than, say, what I will be eating for dinner. Don't think me evil for saying that but history is history and so long as we help solve similar global problems and prevent future tragedies then I don't think about it much. As for genocides happening today they would mean more if I knew about them. I am very ill-informed about global events like the Georgia thing or the Israel-Palestine war. I don't even know what a Darfur is. And since I'm not really going out of my way to learn more about these events I guess it means that they don't mean much to me. I care a lot more about problems closer to home like this stupid economy (it sucks.) and how I will survive until the next paycheck (Hint: Mr. Noodles).

 

[Mozared]

It doesn't mean anything to me. Call me a robot but I don't care about all the people who died because I don't know any of them. And nobody so far has managed to conclusively proof me that those people dying was a bad thing. Heck, I could make an argument that thinning out the world population was a good thing.

So all in all - no, I don't really agree with Hitlers idea that jews = bad and they need to be killed, but I'm not very impacted by the holocaust either because it doesn't mean anything to me. I'm more or less completely apathic to the entire event.

 

[RUINER ACTUAL]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Baer

A lot. This man and his family were almost in it, but escaped to the US before it got really bad. If you play video games, follow this link and read.

 

[Hollock]

There aren't things that get to me. Seeing images from the death camps does. It's powerful.

 

[mubobi7593]

To me it always brings up the concepts of "good and evil." People are always saying how Hitler was the most evil man evar of all time, or something. I don't believe that.

Do not get me wrong- I in no way support what Hitler did, am a neo-Nazi, or something to that effect. I believe Hitler was far wrong to commit genocide, I just don't believe he was evil.

Good and evil are wholly dependent on perspective- what one man sees as an opportunity, another sees as a heinous act against the universe. We see Hitler as "evil" because we believe that the Jewish had the right to live, not be gassed or shot or what-have-you. Hitler genuinely believed that he was doing the world a favor by eradicating the Jewish, that he was a paragon of justice, killing the rats that had ate your winter food stores.

Please note once again that I am NOT supporting Hitler or genocide!

 

[Aerowaves]

A historical tragedy that gradually becomes a little more "meh" with every retelling. We know this is wrong but every time it is brought up it becomes more and more mundane. THIS IS NOT HOW GENOCIDE IS SUPPOSED TO BE. Maybe I'm just a cynical historian though...

It's also outdated, if you think in terms of Nazi racial ideology etc. but someone needs to inform various African dictators that not only is it retarded its also been SHOWN to be retarded by numerous historical examples. Dear dear.

Anyway, in answer to the question, I think that people - myself included - have become too desensitivised to genocide of late. Six million Jews and god knows how many other minorities dead was an unprecedented and fucking awful thing to happen. Yet nowadays we're not concerned so much with the tragedy - unless we're Jewish and/or have actually lived through it - as to the scale of it and how it happened. Objectivity, while an admirable trait in historians and critical thinkers, has no real place here, and is almost unique in this way.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

The Holocaust is a great example of what can happen when a government gets out of control, and the evil people in control of it begin to act on the evils of their hearts, and why any government should never have too much control.

A government which uses propaganda to brain-wash its people to the point where they are either okay with, or so weakened that they can't do anything against the taking of Jews, homosexuals, genetic imperfections, etc, and having them put in either concentration or death camps is the greatest extreme of impropriety.

 

[Marine Mike]

Almost every culture has attempted a genocide at some point in time, and those that didn't were victims of genocide before they had the chance. Whether its Nazi Germany and the holocaust, America and the Native Americans, (Insert unstable African faction here) and (Insert neighboring unstable African faction), Muslim Iraq and the Kurds, and more jihads and crusades than I care to count... I'm not entirely sure of the numbers but I think the Christians take home the blue ribbon for ethnic cleansing. Perhaps someone could tell me what the death toll for all those crusades was, but I'm pretty sure it was more than 6 million.

My feelings on the matter: Its human nature focused by a common goal usually for the "greater good".