Thoughts on Germany and Jew's Survival

After seeing the sheer amount of evidence on the Holocaust and seeing the detail contained in Maus, I do find it hard to believe that someone today would be able to deny the Holocaust. Maus and Maus II is only one account of a survivor’s story among many. What I can see, however, is why the Holocaust is so difficult to imagine. I mean, the extermination of the Jews was conducted so secretly and at such a random impulse that not even the Jews knew if it was the truth. It would have been a different story if the Germans and Jews had some sort of strained relationship, or were already at arms with each other, but Germany had no reason to do this.

Germany was overwhelmed with fighting in WWII yet continued to keep the camps going. Carter said that Germany lost the war because of its involvement with the camps. This involvement defies all logic of war; the Germans were sending troops and supplies to the camps. The situation makes no sense because Germany was fighting for two agendas, both of which seemed to hold equal importance and deplete Germany’s resources.

People insist as well that no one would be capable of doing to another person what Germans did to Jews, but I think everyone knows that there is something in all of us that could push us to become just as bad. For example, a parent would kill to save a child. Here, http://www.prisonexp.org/30years.htm, is a link to the Stanford Prison Experiment website. Experiments like this one have shown, beyond just speculation, that yes, circumstances may push someone to behave violently or to become oppressive.

I also believe that the belief that Jews didn’t fight back against the Germans is partially untrue. Yes, of course the Jews didn’t begin a war with the Germans but they were survivors. It is my opinion that the Jew’s fight for life was a valiant, although individual, war against the Germans. Many Jew’s never lost hope no matter what happened to them, hope was the Jew’s greatest trait and constant motivation. Every Holocaust story that I hear makes me think that I might not have had the strength to do the things that these people did and survive the things that these people did.