How Quickly We Forget

Nadia Werbitzky’s painting, “Hell’s Threshold,”

They were carpenters, shop keepers, and police officers. They were mother’s sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers. They were loved by their families, and they loved them in return. They went to church every Sunday and prayed the lord's prayer. They took communion and confessed their sins every week. They attended festivals and were active community members, putting their pride into their homes and businesses. They loved their God and their country. They were human.

They were murderers. Perpetrators of genocide and soldiers of the most terrible evil empire. They killed without mercy or discretion. They slaughtered mothers, sons, and daughters. They brought whole-sale death at gunpoint, under torch fire, and in clouds of choking gas. They were human.

***

The nightmare days of the Holocaust are behind us, falling further so every day. In roughly 20 years, it is unlikely anyone will be around to recount those nightmares and give warning about how they came to be. Sooner still all of the perpetrators of that horror will perish, along with all of their thoughts, reason, and memory. The largest, most heinous crime of human history will no longer be a memory in human minds, but rather a recorded happening in books, film reels, and photographs. Even as soon as the 1970s, arguments about the Holocaust’s scope, death toll, and even it’s existence have raged in the far fringes of society. While most historians worth their salt would never argue whether or not the Holocaust happened, the internet has done much to bring the aforementioned fringe views into light. These are the same fringes in which you might find “Jewish Conspiracy” believers and “Flat Earthers”. At the moment, these people will remain in that special, crazy place online and be ignored by most and poked fun of by few, but their existence and proliferation are telling for a few reasons. Firstly, it confirms what many already suspected; the fringe is real and it’s denizens are full of zeal and paranoia. Second, it shows us that willful ignorance and denial of historical fact is alive and well, and growing. Lastly, and most concerning, it sets a precedent that a horrifying event like the Holocaust might lose meaning and become a merely academic concern. No one remembers mass crucifixion under the Romans or the horrible sieges and deadly raids of the Mongols. We are beyond that mindset as a race. We could not possibly fathom another Viking Age, where the innocent are preyed upon by barbarians. Barbarism is no longer a human attribute. At least, we certainly like to think that.

Fewer internet users can remember when you only heard conspiracies from your crazy uncle during holidays, or glanced at them on the covers of tabloids. Sure, there was talk radio, but anyone who has perused an internet forum will know that radio hosts are lightweights compared to the unhinged “theorists” online. Those with a bent toward conspiracy are spoiled with an endless selection ranging from Flat Earth to Reptile People and, of course, the Jewish Conspiracy. This last one is a hold over from Nazi Germany, though they were not the originators nor were they the sole subscribers. The basic idea is that Jewish people control the ebb and flow of the world economy, amongst a shopping list of other major institutions including news media and entertainment industries. If you find a believer in the Jewish Conspiracy, it is likely that they are at least “partial” holocaust deniers. Their reasonings may include a supposed Jewish desire to warrant a sort of international sympathy or to drape a cloak of sorrow over their nefarious deeds. Arguing against these assertions is an exercise in futility, and there is not much reason to bring it up here other than to illustrate the following point: even a well-documented, eye witnessed event like the holocaust can and will be denied by those with an agenda that requires it. The antisemtic notion that Jewish people are controlling the world and destroying our moral Christian societies cannot coexist with the stark reality of the holocaust. If the Jews are in control, how could they have let six million of their own die? No, they must deny the holocaust as Jewish propoganda meant to fool the world. The frightening familiarity of this line of thinking hardly needs pointing out.

The fringe “crazies” spout enough untruth dressed in vitriolic language to boil anyone’s blood, but they are not of most concern in regards to human memory. If you deny that the sun exists and the sky is blue, you will be laughed at and berated. Likewise, at least for now, if you deny the existence of The Holocaust, you will be similarly laughed at and berated. However, it is not enough to simply agree that such a horrible event did indeed occur. No, as responsible human beings we have to understand why it happened, how regular humans let it happen, and how we can prevent such an event from happening again. It is to this last point that most concern should be given. It seems that after every world bending atrocity, we inevitably reach a point where we cannot consider circumstances where it could ever happen again. And why should we consider such things? It is easy enough to say “I would never” without considering the millions of Germans who would have likely said the same thing. Furthermore, it is unpleasant to read about the specific methodology the Nazis used and even more unpleasant to study their reasoning. This line of thinking seems to suffice for most:

The Nazis were really bad guys who did really bad things. I’m not a bad guy, therefore, I would never do those bad things.

Does this seem like a nuanced and thoughtful view of such a massive and terrible part of human history? More importantly, can the vast majority claim a more informed viewpoint? Unfortunately, the answer to the latter question is fast becoming a resounding “no”. The difficult truth of being a flawed human is that we are all wholly capable of participating in, tacitly approving of, and even orchestrating genocide. We are all capable of barbarism as well, and we don’t have to look as far back as World War II to prove it. On America’s very streets in 2020, enlightened peoples of all backgrounds engaged in quintessential barbarism. Burning, pillaging, brawling, and even killing; all in the 21st century, and unfortunately it appears the worst is yet to come.

In Eastern Europe during the Nazi occupation, particularly in Belarus, there were highly active partisan groups. Not an uncommon issue for any invading army, partisans or resistance movements have always hidden among the general population and harried invaders. How one army deals with partisans varied from the next one, but if the 19th century was any guide, the occupiers normally pointed their guns at other people with guns only. It seemed that Europe was beyond a time where innocents were slaughtered in the name of rooting out rebels. But during the Nazi Bandenbekämpfung, entire villages were slaughtered and burned to the ground on the mere suspicion of partisan activity. This was not limited to select groups either, it was the entire strategy of the Nazis to punish occupied peoples and break their will. Over 600 villages were wiped from existence in Belarus alone, with the Nazis pillaging, raping, and burning at will. Barbarism, it seems, had not left Europe after all. There are plenty of other similar examples across the cavalcade of horrors known as the 20th century. Are we to assume that in less than a century we have transcended so far from our grandparents? If 2020 is any indicator, the answer is most assuredly no.

Now, faced with the reality of our capacity for violence and evil, will we continue to ignore the warnings of history? When faced with concerns over lists of political dissidents and proposed acts of vengeance (violent or otherwise) toward those on these lists, will we claim that such concerns are overblown? Will we insist that such lists are innocuous, or perhaps nonexistent as we laugh at the mere possibility of political oppression in the 21st century? When faced with ever increasing race-based policy proposals and pushes for new kinds of segregation, will we simply claim the necessity of such measures without considering where they will lead us? Will we scoff at the idea of a slippery slope even as we lose our footing and plummet toward oblivion? If history has taught us anything, it is that there is never a question of ‘if’ war will break out again, only when and how much worse it will be than the last one. World War II set the bar at astronomical heights in terms of human lives lost, but if any person doubts that we could reach and exceed that bar, they are a fool at least. Knowing that the next war, the next Holocaust is indeed coming, will we choose to ignore history or will we try to understand ourselves and stave off hell as long as we can?

Copyright (C) 2020 Thomas Randolph. All rights reserved.