At the end, yesterday I decided to study Japanese for the exam I'll have on the 22nd of February. I have studied 31 ideograms and I have reviewed other 31. It's very difficult and you need to concentrate a lot.
I also didn't know if it was a good idea to write about a painful topic as the Holocaust. I get involved in the event of history when human rights had been violated: my paper for the High School Diploma dealt with the relationship between Aztecs and the Spanish conquistadores and with the extermination of the Aztec population.
I firmly believe that it is very important not to forget what humans like us were able to do against other humans. A lot of different theories had been displayed to explain how Nazis could have killed millions of innocent people, as the famous "banality of evil" by Hannah Arendt.
The film I watched in memory of the end of what it had been a hell on earth, in memory of that 27th of January of 1945 when the gates of Auschwitz were opened, was The Eichmann Show, directed by Paul Andrew Williams and interpreted by Martin Freeman (as Milton Fruchtman) and Anthony LaPaglia (as Leo Hurwitz).
We can see the struggles of the protagonists, their family problems , the difficulties in filming this memorable event (the agreement of the judges, the threatening letter) and the trial itself (the incomprehensible attitude of Eichmann).
This film, and even other films about the Holocaust, make us think about what it is Evil: every time I ask myself: "why didn't average people resist against this massacre?".
What is the most important thing we want to preserve? Our life and the life of our beloved.
If you tried to fight, you would become nobody, you could feel unpleasant consequences which would involve all your relatives and friends.
The organisms which kept the political, ideological and militar power were so well organised that they managed to build a perfect machine of destruction. The shocking fact is that this machine was composed of average persons. Adolf Eichmann himself was one of these average persons.
I agree with the thesis of Hannah Arendt: yesterday I read the summary of her book, Eichmann in Jerusalem (I also studied this author during High School).
Of course he was anti-Semite, but his actions were influenced by his will of differentiating from the mass, by his lack of ideals and ideas.
What happen if you see only cruelty around you? How can you survive? You indulge the events, trying to control them from the inside. And if you don't know how to change the system? You become that system, like a robot without conscience.
"I don't believe in monsters, but I do believe that men are responsible for monstrous deeds".
Leo Hurwitz waits in front of the screens to see a reaction in the look of Eichmann but he won't see any expressions. Nazis have followed orders blindly, so they can't feel guilty.
We are what we choose to be, but if someone teaches you what you must do to be better, you try to follow his words. We are not heroes, but a great work upon ourselves and our beliefs has to be done to avoid any kind of fanatism: we have to look for other answers, not taking for granted that we are always right.
This is the power of knowledge: the more you know, the more you'll be free.
It's fundamental not to forget our past, not to forget the Holocaust, not to forget that dark side of humans' history.
We learn from our mistakes: of course, we are not perfect. But we should remember not to use this as an excuse, but as a way to tend to an higher ideal, to build a better world.
Yours, Silvia
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