Whatsapp80 years ago, on January 20th, 1942, the leaders of the German Nazi Party planned the destruction of all Jews under Nazi control. They planned to kill 11 million Jews. They succeeded in killing more than half that number. The scope and systematic methods that were implemented were unprecedented in history. Mass killing was not unprecedented. But the racial motivation to systematically eradicate an entire race with the latest technological means was a first – even if it meant weakening the war effort against the Allies.
Trailer to a new movie:
Full movie from 1984:
The Jews in Germany were not surprised in 1939. They had six years of preparation and torment since the Nazi party usurped power and consolidated it’s hold on all of Germany. Jews had become second class citizens way before the Nuremberg Laws made it law to destroy the human rights of all Jews. By the end of 1938, when the German people attacked Jews in the Night of Shattered Glass, Kristallnacht, any glimmer of hope for any Jew living in Germany was shattered.
Hundreds of thousands of German Jews ran away. Some mistakenly thought that their bravery in World War I would mean they would be treated differently. They were dead wrong. Racism is much stronger and vicious than nationalism.
There were less than a million Jews in Germany before World War I. Most of the Jews in Europe were in Poland and other countries – Hungary, Rumania, France and others. The Jews in the other countries hoped that the German threats would not cross the borders of Germany. This illusion was shattered in Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. Soon after, it was shattered in France and Belgium. In a matter of less than 2 years, Germany was in control of more than 4 million Jews. By the end of 1942, following the German invasion of Russia, Germany was in control of more than 7 million Jews. They killed more than 6 million of them – systematically.
It was all planned, implemented, and documented. And when the plans did not work as hoped, they were improved. When bullets were not effective enough, gas was used. When gas in trucks was not efficient enough, gas chambers were built. The monsters who destroyed more than 6 million Jews were regular people who decided to take part in becoming part of the world’s worst killing machine. They were not just Germans, but collaborators from every country who gleefully joined the German killing machine.
Yes, exceptions existed. Some people helped rescue Jews, even some Germans. But they were no more than a small percentage of the population. But that small group of people is what provides hope for humanity in a world filled with such darkness.
The German monster was defeated, but the aspiration to kill Jews continues to this very day. Light of day is the most important new weapon that exists in order to combat the evil that exists in the world. This movie sheds light on the past in order for us to know what evil exists in potential if it is not reigned in by the light of good in the world.
