Holocaust Remembrance Reflection

Tragic historic events, many which are followed by a series of consequences culminated
into a large aftermath, influence strongly the time periods that ensue. In the late 1930s into 1945,
such a devastating occurrence took place under the hands of Adolf Hitler as he used his power to
induce one of the largest and most documented genocides ever known. The Holocaust took place
as a continent-wide and firstly nation-wide extermination of the Jews, who were forced to take
the blame for causing the humiliating Treaty of Versailles, and ended with several million
murdered by Hitlers Nazis by inhumane methods. Today, historians and teachers along with
their students and the general population of human beings are exposed to several types of sources
that are used to educate the common person about the extent of this phenomenon. In order to
successfully communicate the real and varying aspects that made the Holocaust an infamous
event so that respect and true knowledge is sustained, education through textbooks and
encyclopedias, memoirs from survivors, and photos and movies should be used to create a
balanced perception.
Although usually lacking bias and a story-like or diary-like atmosphere, textbooks,
encyclopedias, and purely fact and analysis based sources first present a person, no matter what
age, or daily occupation with information that is basic, hopefully true, and impartial. Such an
introduction provides a realistic and, most likely for such a sensitive and brutal topic, blunt
image of the true aspects of the Holocaust. In addition, further analysis of the facts, topics, and
information gives the reader a sense as to why Hitler began such a regime and other factors that
attributed to the extreme Anti-Semitism in order to connect the bits of information into a general
collective whole. Refraining from more emotional and powerful pieces like photos and movies as
a primary introduction allows for someone to know background before making ideas and
judgments and not become shocked or influenced by more traumatic parts of this history.
Once a fundamental understanding of topics such as the number of people that perished
in the Holocaust, the methods used by Nazis to exterminate, and Hitlers general intention to
eventually dominate the world with his handpicked race, it becomes suitable to introduce sources
like memoirs from survivors and the more emotional history behind their stories. To a high
school audience who has had a mixture of education on the time period from 1939-1945, reading
books such as Night by Elie Wiesel can reinforce their basic knowledge of the catastrophe that
was the mass Jewish European extermination with more vivid and emotional words. This
atmosphere furthers the learning and understanding process as the more dramatic and sensitive
issues are exposed; the novels author, as it is biographical, uses his tone of voice and constant
questioning, general rhetorical, in order to portray the utmost feeling of loneliness and disparity
as he chronicles his almost two year residency in a concentration camp fighting for his life. An
encyclopedia or article on the Holocaust will reference how Nazi soldiers under Hitlers orders
used gas chambers to rid themselves more efficiently of the Jewish captives; however, Wiesels
book explains his first-hand view of the crematoria and the same gas chambers so exactly talked
about on a database article. He questions how he will ever believe in God again, how he will ever
sleep after witnessing hundreds of babies thrown into burning fires, and what his purpose of
living is anymore after he explains the tortures of Auschwitz. This relationship erected between
reader and survivor makes the mere facts in a history more real and more powerful, creating
another aspect to this learning experience in order to have a balanced perception of such extreme
tragedy.
As the mind connects this emotion to fact and continues piecing together the reality that
was the Holocaust, another additional influence that is photography and cinema must be used to
congregate all that has been put out into one large view of this time. Demonstrated simply in
ways such as classroom museums and descriptive homework assignments meant to entice the
student to think beyond the borders of their minds, photos of the Holocaust and the inhumane
crimes against mankind allow for the final step in truly grasping the idea of 5.7 million Jews
being intentionally killed and that this plan all sprung from the hand and power of one man,
Adolf Hitler. With the crucial prior knowledge of a secondary source and a primary source, one
can now immerse themselves in the brutally real and blunt movies and photos of the 1940s, and
not be scarred by the tragedies unfolding in them, but affirmed in the reality that was Nazi
Germany. Explaining the use of a crematorium and the experiments conducted on Jewish people
through words allows for someone to hear and partially absorb such atrocities, but a photo of an
emaciated bunk of prisoners elaborates so the extent of the event in total. It is sufficiently
arguable that displaying and using images of the Holocaust are too traumatic and gory to
impartially convey the dynamics of Nazi Germany; however, with the preparation of pure facts
and an idea of, this potential to scar the learner decreases dramatically because the mind is able
to retain a deeper meaning of the photo compared to solely an instinctual emotion such as pity or
fear.
Textbooks and history journals combined with information and learning experience
provide by memoirs and photos of the Holocaust create a balanced source that can educate the
reader without swaying their opinion initially. This method to teaching the basics of Nazi
Germany allows for a basis of knowledge that prepares someone to more effectively develop
their historical opinion. With that come a more educated population of students and people that
have absorbed Hitlers legacy with proper information in order to bring respect to the Jewish and
German communities and validation to personal opinions. In addition, with a fundamental
understanding of the events between the third and fourth decades of the twentieth century, people
as a whole can more efficiently and intelligently decide for themselves who, and what parties,
should take blame for the Holocaust. Ultimately, this information can lead to an atmosphere of
accurate awareness that is useful preventing such atrocities from recurring.