World War II was perhaps the bloodiest war of the twentieth century, if not of all history. Estimates for total deaths range between fifty to sixty-five million. Of those, eleven million were civilians murdered systematically by the Nazis. Six million were Jews – about 72% of the total Jewish population in Europe. In some countries, nearly 90% of the Jewish population was killed. Approximately five million non-Jewish civilians were also put to death. The Romani Gypsies were almost completely annihilated. Homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian priests and pastors, and people with physical or mental handicaps were also murdered in concentration camps.
Millions of others were imprisoned, tortured, and dehumanized. Polish citizens were forced into slave labor or drafted into the German army. Those who stood against the Nazi regime were imprisoned or killed. Biracial children of Africa and European descent were forcibly sterilized.
Sixty-two years have passed since the war. The genocide and atrocities of the Holocaust ended in 1945. Many believe that society has so drastically changed in those years that the Holocaust could not occur again. Others go as far as to deny the Holocaust happened in the first place, that such terrible things could ever occur. Never again could someone attempt genocide on entire races of people. Never again could such atrocities occur.
What many people do not realize, is that they already have occurred in the years since the Holocaust, and continue to occur today.
In 1971, for instance, genocide was attempted in Bangladesh, when West Pakistani military forces sought to eradicate the Easterners seeking independence, by committing genocide on the Bengalis. Men were the main targets – the death toll estimates range between one to three million, with men making up about 80% of the dead. Women suffered systematic rapes, often dying from the violent assaults. 1971 – over 30 years after the Holocaust.
In 1994, another genocide occurred, this time in Rwanda, where Hutu militia murdered an estimated 800,000 Tutsis in just 100 days. 1994 – nearly fifty years since the Holocaust.
Another, modern-day genocide is occurring in Darfur as I write. It began in 2003, and to date, over 400,000 civilians have been murdered by the Sudanese militia, which primarily targeted ethnic group from which rebels drew their support. Villages were burned to the ground, leaving millions of civilians displaced from their homes. Sexual violence is rampant - thousands of girls and women have been raped. People are being murdered for no reason other than being from the wrong ethnic group – just like the Holocaust.
Never again, we declare, pointing at the atrocities of the Holocaust. Never again, as daily more are murdered, as in far-flung places of the globe, genocide is attempted.
That is why it is so important the Holocaust be remembered. Atrocities that no one knows of, or cares about, occur every day. The Holocaust is one of the few that is remembered, that has an internationally recognized day of remembrance, one of the few that is taught at an international level to schoolchildren, one of the few that is known by virtually everyone. The Holocaust was the single worst genocide of the 20th century – the most documented, the most publicized, widespread, and shocking.
It’s vital that it continue to be taught – not just the facts, but its lessons. People must know that it was not the first of its kind, nor the last. That people truly can be blind to atrocities. That such things cannot be allowed to continue, that someone must intervene – that every person has the duty to intervene and stop genocide from occurring.
We are the third generation of the Holocaust, we college-goers, grandchildren of the survivors. Those who were our age when the Holocaust occurred – say, twenty years old when it ended up 1945 – are in their eighties by now. By the time we have children, and our children are old enough to be educated on the Holocaust, few, if any, survivors will be left.
We are the third generation, and the last who can speak first-hand to the survivors. As this last generation, our duty is to remember – not remember the history, as a whole, but remember the individuals, for they are what make up the whole, what make it tangible and real. Reading a book or watching a documentary are nothing like sitting face-to-face with a survivor, hearing their story, seeing the pain in their eyes. Statistics only say so much – far more powerful is a hearing a personal account, first-hand. We are the last to have that privilege – treasure it.
A great part of preventing and stopping genocide, and similar atrocities, is education. That’s something every student can do – educate themselves on the Holocaust, on the Bangladesh genocide, the Rwandan genocide, the conflict in Darfur. Educate themselves, then reach out to educate others, through articles, essays, websites, art, and creative writing. The more people are educated about genocide, the closer we are to stopping it – as well as violence more close to home. In the aftermath of the shooting at Virginia Tech, for instance, students will be more likely to raise awareness about violence because they experienced it at close range. Students all over America will be far more aware of the issues and work to solve them because they heard about it to such an extent.
As well as educating ourselves on such atrocities worldwide as a step towards putting a stop to it, we can do things more directly in our own community. Violence, discrimination and prejudice against people, due to their skin color, gender, sexual orientation, religion, class, location, and more, is widespread in our daily life.
Nowadays, students can raise awareness of this fairly easily, with the use of videotaping – simply with a phone – and the internet. Incidents of violence and discrimination can be taped and seen by thousands of people with a few clicks of a mouse. Students can publish blogs about things that concern them, can speak up when they themselves experience discrimination.
If we talk about prejudice in our daily life, others are more likely to examine their own prejudices and make efforts to change themselves, and then their surroundings. Perhaps if we can essentially eliminate daily prejudice, we can create a future where there will be no fear of another genocide.
References:
Ronnie Landau. (1994). The Nazi Holocaust. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee.
Ina R. Freidman. (1995). The Other Victims: First-Person Stories of Non-Jews Persecuted by the Nazis. United States: Houghton Mifflin.
Save Darfur Coalition. (2007). http://www.savedarfur.org
Ben S. Austin. (1996, February 21st). An Introduction to the Holocaust. Retrieved April 17th, from http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/holo.html
Terese Pencak Schwartz. (2007). Who Were the Five Million Non-Jewish Holocaust Victims? Retrieved April 17th, from http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/non-jewishvictims.htm
Adam Jones. (1999). Case Study: Genocide in Bangladesh, 1971. Retrieved April 17th, from http://www.gendercide.org/case_bangladesh.html
Zarrin T. Caldwell. (Apr. 21, 2006). Stopping Genocide: Taking the Lead or Muddling Through? Retrieved April 17th, from http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/130665
PBS Frontline. (1999). The Triumph of Evil. Retrieved April 17th, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil
Mike Robinson, Ben Loeterman (producers). Steve Bradshaw (writer). (1999). The Triumph of Evil [film]. United States: WGBH Educational Foundation.
Brian Steidle. (March 20, 2005). In Darfur, My Camera Was Not Nearly Enough. Washington Post, page B02.
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