Trigger warning ahead for mentions of the Holocaust, violence, and abuse.

The Holocaust is perhaps the most well-known example of brutality, callousness, and cruelty towards others that has ever occurred in human history. Adolf Hitler, through sheer charisma, was able to control a nation of people and convince them that such cruelty, war crimes, and oppressive behavior were not only acceptable but for the common good of the German people and “The Aryan race.” For this website, I visited the Virginia Holocaust Museum to learn about how the Holocaust impacts modern oppression and what we can learn from the horrors of yesterday to prevent them from occurring again. This topic was explored through live exhibit of certain events through the Holocaust. Certain items are recreated, such as the gas chambers, ghettos, a street impacted by the destruction of Kristallnacht, and numerous other exhibits.

Not only were people complacent in this brutality against the Jewish people, but in some times, people would actively commit crimes against them. The docent that led our tour told us a story about this; it was not uncommon for Jewish people to be waterboarded over and over, to near the brink of death each time, before they were killed. Nobody ever stopped it. If they did not laugh at their misfortunes, they would join in themselves.

Even though it may seem like “jumping the gun” to say that today’s behaviors were the same that caused the Holocaust, it is true. Oppression is a tool of control. It has been used throughout history to demean others and reduce them to the status of a nobody. Hitler’s rise to power was subtle at first, and the murder of millions of people was a culmination of people standing idly by and doing nothing because they were not affected by such problems. We see these behaviors beginning even today. Recall the waterboarding of the Jews. We are already beginning to see such behaviors through police brutality and violence towards people of color. If we continue standing by and saying nothing, what could this turn into one day?

The Holocaust shall not happen again. So let’s work to make a world where it won’t.