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| Lincoln Memorial |
A co-worker asked me why I would go somewhere so sad. And yeah, it is devastating and heart-wrenching. The Holocaust was one of the worst events in human history, and we continue to feel emotional repercussions of it through continued generations. All of humanity has been affected. We spent about four hours soaking up all the perfectly laid out information, and I swear I cried at least 3 hours of that time. It is an excruciating topic, but it is crucial. Avoiding hard things in history does not help us learn from them. If we do not face these events head on, we are bound to repeat the atrocities. Hitler himself knew that he could "get away" with such barbaric tactics because similar acts had slid through the cracks before. He is quoted saying of the Armenian Genocide:
"I have issued the command and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness for the present only in the East with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
Do you think talking about the Armenian Genocide would have prevented the Holocaust? I don't know. But perhaps it would've given more people pause, and perhaps more people would have survived the concentration camps. So let's talk about it. Let's talk about how easy it is for history to repeat itself.
The museum is is organized in three floors: 1.) how Hitler came to power and how Nazi propaganda turned public opinion against the Jewish people, 2.) the concentration camps, and 3.) the resolution and end of war. We spent a lot more time on the first floor than the 2nd and 3rd, because I found it fascinating how it all went down. Germany had a solid government in place, didn't it? It had checks and balances. It had democracy. How did this happen?
While we were on the first floor, I overheard a woman say, "It takes a lot of very sick people to do this..." and my internal response was something akin to this:
I wanted to turn to her and shake her. No! It doesn't take a lot of "sick" people! That's the point of this whole museum. because these were regular people, good citizens, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers. People with jobs just like yours and mine. People who came home at night, ate dinner with their family, attended church, volunteered, watched TV, worried about their children's futures, and where to get the best price for groceries. It doesn't take a lot of sick people. It simply takes a lot of scared people.
Fear can change the perspective and opinion of nations. The Nazis came to power because people were afraid. The economy was in difficult times, the world had already been ripped to pieces from the brutal "Great War," and Germany was in trouble. When you feel weak and afraid, human nature dictates to turn to the strongest ally you can see. That ally just happened to be a power-hungry psycho who has done far more damage to our world than just making the name "Adolf" taboo for your child, all the while promising to bring redemption to their country.
Hitler and his party were originally viewed as the crazy, right wing party. They were in the minority. A non-threat. Hitler landed himself in prison, no one really cared. He wrote a book. No one really cared. His racist newspaper was banned. Meh. He was viewed as a bigot, an extremist, someone you didn't want leading your country. But he became High Chancellor, and within months, dictator because people were scared. People started saying, "You know, there has to be someone to blame for this crisis we're in. Hey, Hitler seems to be yelling pretty loudly. Oh, and he's blaming people who look and act different than us? Sounds about right." and thus they developed an almost cult following.
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| Portraits |
I want to say that this cannot happen in our world today. I want to say that our human society has become more diverse, we have access to knowledge about different governments, cultures, religions, lifestyles and skin colors. I want to say that, but at the same time I don't know if I can stand behind that statement. Because the Internet is amazing. But both a strength and a downfall of this versatile tool, is that you can find exactly what you look for. Although the resources are there, we don't always use them for good. Just like we can have healthy food in grocery stores, doesn't mean we'll get thinner and our cholesterol will go down. We surround ourselves with what we want to hear, what we want to know about. If you don't want to read the Quran, you won't. If you want to learn how horrible Muslims are, that's what you find. We are a society who benefit from the Internet as a medium for us to pick out facts that validate our already stubborn beliefs--buffet-style. We can unfollow, unfriend, unsubscribe, and un-associate with whoever we want, and create this nice cush bubble of opinions we agree with. This is especially dangerous as we run ourselves headlong into an anti-political, no-negotiation, no-conversation, bullheaded way of solving issues. We say MY issue is more important than THEIR issue. My infirmity is more important than the struggle of that homosexual or that homeless person or that Muslim or that Israeli or the person that lives in the city or that of the farmer. We no longer look at the big picture. Which is the biggest irony of our age today, when so much of that big picture is available to us with our information inundation. Here's why that is an extremely dangerous thing to do.
A tactic used by Hitler's regime was to inundate the airwaves with antisemitic propaganda. Over and over, every poster, every newspaper, every radio show had jabs at Jews. They're parasites, they're not like you, they're rats, they're manipulators, they'll take advantage of your kindness, they want to take over the world. He has a quote from Mein Kampf, "If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed." And boy, that lie was caught, hook, line and sinker.
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| Deuteronomy 4:9 |
Nowadays, WE control our own personal airwaves. WE create our own propaganda. If you only follow one newspaper, if you only watch Fox News (or CNN or BBC) or only ready The Skimm (guilty) then you are getting biased data. No matter how hard that news agency tries to be down the middle on the spectrum. You are forming a cone of ignorance. Very specific opinions swirl and reverberate around your head. And THAT is how we become bigoted and allow horrendous things to happen to people. The Holocaust didn't occur because Germany was full of sadistic psychopaths. It happened because regular people like you and me were scared and thus manipulated without realizing it. If we're not recognizing our own biases, checking our privilege, challenging our views, showing empathy to people very different from ourselves, we too live in our own propaganda driven worlds.
In the very last part of the museum was this quote from a Protestant pastor named Martin Niemöller:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
We are taught to apply the scriptures to ourselves. That's really hard. It's hard to step back and say "this isn't written for people long past," this isn't for people who aren't Mormon, this isn't for the neighbor who leaves church early or even your spouse who has that annoying habit. It's for you. It's for you.
At the end of George Orwell's classic, "Animal Farm," is a very poignant. The pigs have started walking on two legs and were having dinner with neighboring farmers and other men. The other animals are peaking in the windows to see what they're up to.
"But they had not gone twenty yards when they stopped short. An uproar of voices was coming from the farmhouse. They rushed back and looked through the window again. Yes, a violent quarrel was in progress. There were shoutings, bangings on the table, sharp suspicious glances, furious denials. The source of the trouble appeared to be that Napoleon [a pig] and Mr. Pilkington [a man] had each played an ace of spades simultaneously. Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
Are we the pigs, or are we the men?
The banner in front of the DC Holocaust museum states in bold, all capital letters "NEVER AGAIN." If we don't see that repetition of history is a possibility, we have learned nothing from the atrocities of the Holocaust. The museum has been for naught. So let us be kind. Let us strive to understand people different from us. Let us welcome challenges to our faith systems, our perspectives, our opinions. Let us "act and not be acted upon." Let us change our minds, and let others do the same. Let us be brave and stand up against the world's atrocities. Let us have the courage to see the plights of others and let us learn precious empathy. Let the human race progress and become better. Let us always remember that "we are the lunatics." But most of all, let us learn to love people better, especially those different from ourselves.
