Samantha Deemer April 25, 2011 Pd 1

What is it that makes us human? Is it our genetic make up? The species homo sapien, perhaps? By definition, a human is "a bipedal primate mammal of the genus Homo (H. Sapiens)." That definition describes over seven billion living things on the earth today. That number counts every living human on the planet. It does not exclude murderers, rapists, thieves, the mentally disabled, the physically disabled, or former members of the Nazi party. How, then, can we say that they (the former Nazi Party members and officers) were not and are not human? What they did was unspeakable, disgusting, and horrid. Some lost their minds, others, their lives for the corruption that they mistook for the truth many years ago. Nevertheless, they never underwent any genetic change that made them different from anyone else on this planet. Does this confirm the suspicion that everyone is capable of great good and great evil? Anyone—from the leader of the most powerful country in the world, to the small child who will unfortunately grow up to be a criminal—has the power to do the wrong thing. Each one of us humans has the ability to kill. That is seven billion living things that could possibly pose a threat to our lives. What, then, made the Nazis' crime so different than any of the others? What made them seem so unlike any person that we dare to call a human being?

If we really want to delve into the Nazi world, we have to understand what they believed to be true. Hitler believed that the Jews, as well as a few other groups of people, were responsible for Germany's loss in the first World War. These people had caused such great shame and humiliation to Germany, that they simply had to be punished. When Hitler rose to power in 1933, he made sure that punishment would come. In schools, hatred of Jews was taught as casually as math or literature. The children of the Nazi Youth were taught to be "perfect" German citizens. Unfortunately that included holding a deep hatred of the Jewish people. Some students were swayed easily and became uniform, perfect members of the Nazi Youth. Other students, who were not swayed, didn't speak out. Would you want to be the one person singled out as different, especially in a place as reliant on status-quo as middle school or high school? I think not. This extreme form of peer pressure is what—I believe—allowed Nazism to spread as rapidly and as far as it did. If there would have been more people who were brave enough to stand up for their beliefs, then maybe the Holocaust would not have been as bloody as it was.

The Nazis targeted Jewish people, Jehovah's Witnesses, Poles, Slavic peoples, Soviet POWs, Gypsies, as well as the mentally ill, physically disabled, mentally retarded, homosexuals, and transsexuals. This can be compared to premeditated serial murder—but on a much larger scale. They are almost comparable to Jeffery Dahmer, an American serial killer who targeted only boys of African and Asian descent, and killed fifteen boys between the years of 1978 and 1991. They both (Nazis and Dahmer) had specific people that they were after; the only difference is that Dahmer was sentenced to fifteen life sentences in prison—one for every life he destroyed, but the Nazis were given no such punishment. Sure, they have endured derision and shame in the years proceeding their reign over Germany, but they have not received punishment for each and every of the eleven million lives that they helped to end. If that were the case, they all would be in jail, each waiting out eleven million life sentences. Maybe there, in the solitude of a prison cell, they would reflect upon what they have done, the crimes they have committed, and see that they cannot treat their fellow man in such a manner.

Herd instinct: the basic need of social animals, including humans, for the companionship of peers and a tendency to find compatibility with the behavioral standards of others in the group. (Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 8th edition. © 2009, Elsevier.) Could it be possible that Nazism was a product of herd instinct? Could it be possible that millions of innocent people died because the general population was too afraid of exhibiting different beliefs and emotions toward those people than others around them? Unfortunately, it is so. If we could all learn to stand up for exactly what we believe in, then horrors such as the Holocaust, and all other genocides, as well as prejudices and discriminations could be quashed and put to a stop. Every human has the ability to stand up for what they believe in, just as they have the ability to commit crimes. The question is not whether we have the ability to prevent something like the Holocaust from happening again; the question is are we willing to? If another Holocaust were to happen, most people—if asked—would say that they would stand up against it, and make it stop before it even began. That would be in a perfect world. The sad truth is that most people would slip into herd instinct mode and just go along with it, no matter what they truly believed, just like before.

If humans were perfect, computer-like and impartial then there would be no need to continue learning about the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. We would not need watch terrifying documentaries showing the disgusting conditions of the concentration camps, the thin, frail figures belonging to the victims of those camps, and the heart breaking stories of survivors who lost everything and everyone that they had ever loved all because of a violent burst of hatred against them.

Humans, however, are not perfect. In fact, we are far from perfection. We hold grudges, honor vendettas, and judge others. We are a flawed species. We try to fix things that aren't broken, and end up causing havoc and mayhem instead. When we fight for what we believe in, we end up hurting the others who believe in something different. If we could prevent another Holocaust, every human would have to be tolerant, understanding, non-judgmental, and completely and utterly the same. We wouldn't be people if we didn't have different opinions, thus complete prevention of another Holocaust is almost impossible, wishful thinking at best. This will only happen if the whole world bans together and accepts differences between people. This is what we have to do to prevent another Holocaust. We all know what they say, that history repeats itself, but it doesn't have to. We have the power to change the world, for the better, not just for the worse. We have it, but will we use it?