Inexplicable

Many people are aware of the horrendous crimes of Hitler’s Third Reich and know enough about the Holocaust to know that it was perhaps the most outrageous genocide in history. Before this course, I was one of the “many people”, with a clear but nonetheless detached understanding of what really happened but more importantly, how it happened. While how Hitler came to power can be explained by evaluating the social, economic and political conditions at the time, among others, the answer remains shrouded in mystery, complicated and endless in possibility. Even after our studies, the question of how Hitler regime was able to produce so many loyal followers who unconditionally obeyed orders and inspire ordinary citizens into believing in the atrocities “rightfully” committed by the Reich still puzzles me. I don’t think it’s a question that can ever be fully answered.

It is hard to imagine, still, what it must have been like to live in Nazi Germany during that period. Whether young or old, Jewish or non-Jewish, male or female, to have to wake up each morning just to find some aspect of the life as I used to know it completely torn down and replaced with a new, often scary alternative by an all powerful totalitarian regime, is a terrifying thought. The films we have watched in class, especially the last one on the Warsaw Ghetto, were especially touching. Too see the squalid and unbearable living conditions the Jews had to endure was difficult to watch. Jews: normal people, with arms, legs, two eyes, a nose and feelings just like the rest of us, were forced to experience inexcusable suffering at the command of one, irrational and psychologically damaged madman. It is absolutely outrageous.

If anything, the materials covered in this course and the complementary readings have not only allowed me to open up my once limited understanding to learn the plain, technical facts behind the central questions of “who”, “what”, “when”, “how” and “why” regarding the Third Reich and the Holocaust, but also most importantly, brought me closer to empathizing with the emotions and the mindset of those who lived through that time. To not only learn the hard facts but also come to value how the people were impacted both physically and emotionally by the events leading up to the establishment of the single party state and the policies of the regime thereafter was definitely one of my biggest takeaways from this course.