Quote:
Originally posted by crayola,
"Most did not resist because they could not believe what was happening to them."
I remember seeing films of the train stations where Jews were boarding to travel to the death camps, but not knowing it at that time. The soldiers were standing around with guns straped on their shoulders etc., but didn't look as if Jews were prisoners. What was the excuse used that lured those Jewish people, especially the mothers of children to trust Hitler ? This is what people cannot understand even to this day. Why all the trust ? What "misinformation" was being fed to the Jewish communities in Germany? Does any thing remain such as flyers, news articles, or was the press silenced by Hitler? |
It is a disturbing question that always frustrated me. I did my reading decades ago, but I seem to remember that after Hitler unleashed the first waves of violence against Jews, the government starting moving Jews for their "protection". Of course no one told them they were to be killed. Even the gas chambers were presented as mass showering places.
To some extent I think Jews have not been willing to face the question of why we didn't resist. As a child when I would ask that question, it was treated by my parents as unreasonable. In other words, the actions taken against us were so unreasonable, how could one expect a reasonable reaction? (Resistance being a reasonable reaction to oppression)
I think that the German Jews were in denial. They didn't want to believe. They couldn't believe what was happening to them. They thought or hoped it would pass. My father, an American Jew always considered himself a survivor. He said it was just an accident of birth that he was in America at the time. Being born in 1941, I would fit into this category.
Being an American, I can't imagine cooperating in my own murder. But even in America that Jews have lived in relative safety is largely due to the tolarance of the majority. In Europe Jews always lived among intolerant majorities. It is not difficult for me, in America in 2004, to get feisty when I think Jews are being insulted. In Europe in the late 30's and early 40's, it would have been extraordinary. We do know their were pockets of resistance such as the Warsaw ghetto.
We have attempted to make up for not resisting by making it clear that it will never happen again.
Melvyn - Blogging at
http://radio.weblogs.com/0137954/