thought: the state of humanity during the holocaust

The Highlight of Human Emotion During Tragedy

The best and worst of people usually emerge during times of grief, desperation, and sadness. Many may wonder as to why such extremes are not expressed during the light-hearted and joyous moments of life. It is simply because, during those times of pleasure, one emotion is emitted by all or rather a façade is put up to simulate such elatedness, while dismissing the unhappy works that threaten the laughter and excitement. Tragedy however, as awful as it seems, gives opportunity for all to display a range of emotions from hate to even compassion or sympathy. One such example would be that of the Holocaust occurring prior to and during World War II.

Sickening and cruel events happened during the Holocaust involving Jews, gypsies, and peoples of difference ironically all alike, being mindlessly slaughtered without any consideration that those individuals were most positively human too. Perhaps many may argue that those men, the Nazis were not at all human for their unforgivable actions, but some must fathom that yes, indeed that those in that political group were very much human showing sadly the worst in humanity. Dr. Josef Mengele, also known as the “Angel of Death”, was a member of the Nazi party and served as chief provider of the gas chambers located at the death camp of Auschwitz. While not directing the traffic and ushering lines of women and children to their deaths, he spent a lot of his time performing repulsive experiments dealing with twins, genetics and basically testing the limits of “science” with nature. He would forcefully drop foreign chemicals into the eyes of men with the intention of changing eye color, but instead inflict burning pain to his victims. In addition to the nauseating acts of Mengele, it is said that the worst that one may do during difficult times is simply and painfully, nothing. Over six million were slaughtered in the plain sight of the world. Only the world could have sadly allowed this at the time.

On the contrary, the brighter side of the picture is that many did not plainly stand and do “nothing.” During the Holocaust, it has been recorded that many individuals had made the choice to rise up and fight back against anti-Semitism and hatred by either joining a rebellion or subtly and surreptitiously allowing Jews and people of difference to hide within their homes. Irene Sendler worked as a Polish social worker during the Holocaust and “helped save some 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto and giving them false identities” (Associated Press). Although, Sendler had given the Jewish children false names and passed them as Catholics, she took great care into writing the original birth-given names of each child in hope to reunite them with their families after the war. One child who was saved by Sendler wrote, "Mrs. Sendler saved not only us, but also our children and grandchildren and the generations to come." Sendler, who died recently almost three months ago at 98 displayed the good of humanity at its peak saving thousands of lives and with time, the numbers keep growing.

Altogether, through the horrific events of one of the most devastating periods of history, there was a definite existence of evil intentions yet simultaneously the presence of the underlying goodness of the merciful. The Holocaust is taught today, teaching lessons around the world to realize the terror, yet sensitive heart of humanity. ♫

-lilxerica