Gommel: Week 1 Blog

Wiesel at liberation 3rd from left in front of guy with beret

Genocide and its Affects on the Individual

The atrocities of the political policy of genocide in Germany under Hitler’s regime were horrific. Its affects on the life of Elie Wiesel led him to tell the story of “Night” as a voice for all the individuals of genocide whose voices were silenced. The warm memory of his youth unfolded into his holocaust journey into the unending night of terror.

However, Elie Wiesel’s dramatic account of his horrific experiences of the holocaust of the Jews is in direct opposition to the initial pristine, elegant, civil, yet cold environment at the Wansee Conference that gave birth to the elimination of the Jews by way of the gas chambers. This “Final Solution” culminated from a collective unanimous agreement among educated elite individuals. Despite their ambiguity the members present complied with the wishes of Germany's Heidrich and agreed with his authority to exterminate the Jews in order to bring about as the Soviet Story revealed the Marxist new man and a better pure nation. Here began what the world considered the greatest inhumanity to humanity. However the Soviet Ukraine had already mass murdered millions a decade before Hitler. Wiesel pondered how is it that the educated can kill children and the elderly, and take away a people's faith, tradition and memory? This is a question that may not have an answer, but many clues are given through the movie Conspiracy.

One of the greatest contributions to genocide at the Wansee Conference was the compliance of individuals with the group. Though members had concerns they tried to address, they were hushed and no one else came to back them up; so they just shut up. Heidrich, the leader, was reassuring as he swiftly glossed over thier concerns and kept the meeting fast paced to throw his audience off their current thought process with some newer more bizarre revelation. Of course with these political leaders, they also knew that if they didn’t go along with the group their own lives may be in jeopardy. So, though they initially thought their input was necessary, they soon realized they must comply and follow the authority of Heidrich. No matter the cost, even the loss of their own humanity.

Wiesel also found compliance to be the problem on the part of the Jews. They accepted their fate by complying with everything that the Germans told them to do. The Jews were even positive when sent to the ghettos with the belief that now we are all together and can form our own counsel away from the Germans. The same sentiment existed when transported, until it was too late with seperation at the camps.

A lesson for individuals is that neutrality only helps the oppressor. People must take a stance to avoid genocide. Wiesel as all victims of genocide felt like they were forgotten. How long can this last before someone will speak up and help us? He also felt forgotten by God. How can a loving God allow such evil? God allows people free will, so those not being victimized need to stand strong and come to the aid of victims. It was most defeating for Wiesel when he realized the world stood by and did nothing. Action must be taken. People must search for the truth and be ready to defend righteousness. In Conspiracy, leaders were stifled when they spoke out, even mocked for their belief such as when Kritzinger did not want to see the Jews killed. He inherently knew this was wrong, yet he let Heidrich convince him that he was being inhumane to let them suffer; and conceded to Heidrich’s wishes. The Soviet Story also spoke of gassing as being humane; deadly, but not cruel. Just because others are educated leaders, one should not justify mass murder or comply with injustice.

Statistics can get others to comply with irrational behavior because it takes away from the individuality of the person. To label people as a group and apply a standard to that group takes away from their humanity. This is why Wiesel wants to tell the story of the individual. Do not fall for tactics that devalue individuals.

Productivity in business can also detract from the value of the individual, which led leaders to endorse criminal behavior. In Conspiracy, Jewish individuals were seen as commodities that had to be moved. In the name of productivity, thousands were to be executed in a day to move the products. Of course, at the end of the war, the Soviets refilled the camps with their products (people); so sometimes evil abounds just because it can.

Wiesel saw that indifference to the suffering of others is what makes the human being inhuman. It allowed the Soviets to torture with no repercussions. After all they weren’t Nazis. It kept the world from helping. It kept the Germans lashing out their cruelty.

When Wiesel’s father was killed, nothing mattered to Elie anymore. He could not even weep. Now came freedom from caring. He thought of nothing but food. The American troops liberated him. When Elie was able to look in a mirror for the first time since the ghetto, what he saw was, “a corpse contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me” Elie Wiesel’s journey thereafter was to find an answer for that boy as to why such horrendous cruelty could be allowed to happen. so that the youth of the future will not have to experience his past.