While learning about Hitler and the history during World War II, I learned that Jewish people had been the target of hatred for so long. Just a few questions that came up to my mind were: why it had to be the Jews, why they got rid of them so cruelly, and how a human being could possibly do that to another human being. Even before the killing–Holocast, Jewish had been isolated from the Europeans. Daily, the Jewish people were killed and tortured so many different ways. They were prevented through law to hold office, they had to wear yellow stars on the left side of their clothing to tell others they were Jewish, and were kicked out to whatever country they were forced to.
One of the most shocking things for me to learn was the camps (concentration camps and extermination camps) set up by the Nazis to slave people and kill them. These camps came through after Hitler’s “Final Decision” or massive genocide. Not only were the Jewish the target, but also different races, disabled people, and even homosexuals. The peole there (especially the Jews) were killed by the Aryans, or the “master race”. Horrible conditions were one problem,mass exterminations were the big problems. The specialized extermination camps in Chelmo/Poland were an example for killing so many people that they buried the dead bodies in pits and burned them. These mass graves were included in one of the ways of how 6 million Jews died during this time. Just for believing that religion these many people sacrificed themselves. There may have been a choice to say they weren’t Jewish, but their looks and their faith weren’t something they could hide easily. So many Europeans followed their leader’s thoughts and hated the Jewish. However, there were the few people who were against Hitler and helped the Jewish people hide. Raoul Wallenberg was an example.
As a believer myself, like always, I get to wonder about myself in that time. If I were in that situation, would I have been able to go through all that pain. Would anybody right now be able to proudly say their religion and sacrifice themselves? (Although I do think that the sacrifice wasn’t a choice.) As history kept going, the Jewish lost more and more power in the economy. Is religion a sin? That’s the question I can’t find an answer to.
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