What Do you really know about the Holocaust?
Does this title already make you uncomfortable? Yeah, me too. But over the last year and a half this time period in life kept popping up in my head and my gut told me to dig into it. You know that gut feeling that tells you something? Well, don’t ignore it.
Now I would never claim to know or fully understand everything about the Holocaust, but there is a plethora of information about it and we should educate ourselves on terrible things that happened in history. It would be foolish not to. So before I share any reflections I have had I am sharing information with you that comes directly from the New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston, MA.
Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazis created a regime of hate and victimization in Germany that eventually consumed most of Europe. Driven by racist beliefs, they killed as many as eleven million men, women and children in their quest to dominate Europe and to create a “pure and superior” race. The Nazis singled out the Jews for total extermination-their very existence to be erased from history and memory. Before their defeat in 1945, the Nazi regime murdered six million Jews- more than half of Europe’s Jewish population.
Those who have perished have been silenced forever. Those who witnessed and survived the horrors carry with them the burden of memory. Through their voices, we seek to comprehend the acts of humanity that can stem from the seeds of prejudice.
To remember their suffering is to recognize the danger and evil that are possible when one group persecutes another. As you walk this Freedom Trail pause here to reflect on the consequences of a world in which there is no freedom- a world in which basic human rights are not protected. And know that where ever prejudice, discrimination and victimization are tolerated, evil like the Holocaust can happen.
1933
January
The Nazi Party takes power in Germany. Hitler becomes Chancellor.
February
Nazis “temporarily restrict” civil liberties for all citizens never to be restored.
March
The concentration camp at Dachau is established.
May
Trade unions are closed. Books declared contrary to Nazi beliefs are publicly burned.
1935
September
The German government enacts the Nuremberg Laws codifying the “racial” definition of Jews and depriving them of citizenship and fundamental rights.
The Nazis intensify persecution of political dissidents and others considered “inferior” including Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals. Many are sent to concentration camps.
1938
November
Kristallnacht: “The Night of Broken Glass.” Nazis attack Jews throughout Germany- 30,000 Jews arrested. 91 Jews killed. 7,500 shops and businesses looted. More than 1,000 synagogues set afire.
Jewish children are expelled from public schools.
December
Nazis seize control of Jewish owned businesses.
1939
September
Germany invades Poland. World War II begins. Nazis order Polish Jews into restricted ghettos and force them into slave labor.
October
Hitler orders the so-called “Euthanasia” program leading to the systematic murder of the mentally and physically disabled in Germany and Austria.
1940
February
Nazis begin deporting German Jews to Poland.
December
Nazis begin the first mass murder of Jews at Treblinka.
1941
June
Germany attacks the Soviet Union. Mobile killing units begin the systematic slaughter of Jews.
September
In two days, mobile killing units shoot 33,771 Ukrainian Jews at Babi Yar- the largest single massacre of the Holocost.
Reflect on all that for a moment. Really put yourself in that time in life. Imagine you were being persecuted by your government. Imagine the government saying you were disease ridden and needed to be exterminated from the human race. I do not put this lightly.
Do you see what is happening in the world right now?
Healthy people being assumed as disease carrying with absolutely no justification to the assumption.
Not the people who are obese, which itself is a disease that slowly is killing anyone who has it.
People turning on people.
That is how they get you. In-fighting. They just need you to turn against each other and they win.
We should study history. Because it always repeats itself.
And know that where ever prejudice, discrimination and victimization are tolerated, evil like the Holocaust can happen.
We are no more intelligent than anyone who came before us. In fact we may be digressing. The upside is, we can turn it around. Simply reading this and acknowledging what is happening to stop it however we can, well that is a start.
I am hesitant to share this. There is a lot of anger and hate in the world right now. Empathy is lacking. Real open hearted conversations are lacking. Angry keyboard warriors may take this the wrong way. It is worth the risk of being hated on if just one person reads this and it open their eyes and minds to look into history more.
We should be working together in love and with empathy and an understanding of history, to make a better future. May we somehow find a way to do so.
Photos taken on my family trip to Boston, MA in August of 2021, at the New England Holocaust Memorial.