The Important Questions

            I took this class hoping to find answers to some of the difficult questions surrounding the tragedy of the Holocaust, but instead of answers, I’ve only gotten more questions. I’ve learned that some of the most important questions simply don’t have answers. Questions like “What kind of horrible human beings could orchestrate an event like this?” or “People must have been aware of the situation, how could they sit idly by?” or even bigger questions like “Where was God?”

            The one question that particularly plagued me was as follows; how could a human being with any sort of moral compass ignore the tragedies occurring right in their own country? After visiting Auschwitz, it became nearly impossible for me to believe that those anywhere near a camp could ignore what was happening there. The camps were enormous, covering an incredible amount of space. I’m sure at the time they were operating it was loud, smelly and again, nearly impossible to overlook. Visiting Auschwitz and seeing just how close in proximity some houses were to the camps, it was clear that residents of this country were avoiding the issue. After learning about the torture, murder and general mistreatment of the prisoners of the camps, it hurt me to think that people could turn a blind eye. For me, it raised yet another important question; what would I have done?

            It is so easy for me to sit here and say that I would have intervened. But what would I have done? I could have joined the underground as some non-Jewish members of the community had. But what if I had a family of my own and helping those suffering would be sacrificing the safety of my own family? Would I have been willing to make a sacrifice like that for people I didn’t know? In the Holocaust kingdom, a non-Jewish friend on the outside of the ghetto saved Alexander Donat’s son. This woman risked her life for another family’s child. I have incredible respect for this woman and would like to believe that if I was in her situation, that I would have done the same. But, once again, the difficult part about asking these questions is that you are never guaranteed and answer.

            As thought provoking and frustrating as these questions are, they are nonetheless important to be asked. Although it is impossible to answer these questions because I am not in the position that these bystanders were in, it is important to ask them because it shows that I am recognizing the need to look out for those around me who are struggling. Despite not knowing what role I would play if a situation ever arose, I am showing that I am aware of the need for people to stand up and not be passive bystanders. To be socially conscious and active is incredibly important. To raise questions like “what would I have done?” is evidence of your inclination to do something. After seeing some of the horrible injustices imposed on the victims of the Holocaust, I feel more inclined than ever to not be a bystander and to use my voice against any wrong, either big or small.

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Children in the Holocaust

            One thing that has continuously shocked me throughout my time spent visiting the camps, sitting in lectures, reading various works of literature and listening to survivors has been the treatment of children throughout the Holocaust. Prior to this class, I had never given much thought to the treatment of children. In my mind, children were off limits to the cruelty of the Nazis. It was hard for me to imagine that anyone could act so inhumanely towards innocent children.

            Upon entering block number 6, I was moved by many of the exhibits within. Somehow, seeing the uniforms the prisoners wore paired with pictures of the inmates struck a chord with me. Also in this block there were cases filled with belongings of children recovered in the camps. Little trinkets and toys reminded me of the innocence of the poor children. It hurt me to think how different their upbringing was from my own. They weren’t able to live a carefree lifestyle that I think all children deserve. Further into the exhibit, images of starving inmates and examples of what they would eat on a daily basis. Once again, the images of the starving children in particular deeply saddened me. The faces of the children appeared adult like, aged by the horror they had experienced.

In Auschwitz, around 240,000 children were brought into the camp but by the time the camp was liberated, only 600 children had lived that long. An overwhelming amount of these kids who died had been brought to the gas chambers upon arrival because they were not useful to the Nazis. Being a Jewish child was an immediate death sentence. It was also very common for pregnant women to be murdered but about 680 births took place in the camp. However, of those 680 births, only 46 children lived long enough to be liberated. Often times the children were taken at birth and proceed to suffer immensely at the hands of Dr. Josef Mengele as he used them as human guinea pigs for his sick medical experiments. More often than not, the kids that were experimented on had horrible and inhumane deaths. Knowing not only that kids were subjected to the excruciating life in the camp but also suffered more so due to medical experimentation made visiting block 6 all the more difficult.

Children, specifically Jewish children, suffered even before entering the camps. In Alexander Donat’s Holocaust Kingdom, Donat recounts moments that he witnessed cruelty towards children. In one example, while loading Jews into the cattle car heading from the ghetto to the camps, incredible brutality was directed towards a child hidden in a mother's backpack. Donat, not wanting the same fate for his own son, made an incredible effort to save his son from the being sent to the camps. Miraculously he was successful in this attempt. If it were not for the help of his non-Jewish friends, it is almost certain that Donat’s son would not have survived the war.

            The terrible fate of the children in the camps showed me that the cruelty of the Nazi’s had no end. While it is still difficult for me to wrap my head around the tragedy that occurred in Auschwitz, and other camps, it inspired me all the more to never be a bystander and to combat any and all injustices that occur around me. It is so easy to say that something will “never happen” because it is just “too evil” and therefore ignore a rising issue, but the children that suffered through the Holocaust are evident that this isn’t true.

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