4th Week Online Activity for First Quarter Period

Online Journal Entry 1.4:

MY PERSONAL ENCOUNTERED

Nationalism in the early 20th century saw the strengthening of cultural identity in
various nations in the world. Germany and Italy was finally united after a long time from
small petty states into unified powerful countries. And the once powerful Austrian
Empire dissolved itself because of its multi-ethnic character. However with the rise of
nationalism what are the challenges it caused?

The Nazi Party of Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany in 1932 after the disastrous
effect of the Great Depression in the economy empowered their political party. Germany
was humiliated and had to pay enormous war reparations and debts to the victors of the
first world war, Hitler took advantage of the weak German government and seized power.
The Nazis achieved recovery in both the military and economy in such a short time.
However, the Nazi Party was critical in its stance against the Jews. Hitler blamed the
Jewish people for their hardships and the eventual cause of defeat of Germany in the First
World War. Therefore, suppression of Jewish people began in Germany under Adolf
Hitler. German rapid expansion into Europe reaching as far as France and occupying
large swathes of Russia, Hitler planned to gather all the jews in German-occupied Europe
and exterminate them so that Germans as the “superior race” can secure huge swathes of
land in Europe.

This Picture, makes me cry. The people in the gas chambers screaming for help but
to no avail. They have to suffer in this gas chambers until they die. Just seeing this
picture makes me feel suffocated. Jewish people were tricked into entering the gas
chambers disguised as “shower baths” because they have to “sanitize and disinfect”
themselves. So before they were led to the gas chambers they were ordered to strip naked
before entering the chambers. The guards then injected powerful chemicals in the sealed
gas chamber waiting for the people inside to die for around 20 minutes. Screams can be
heard from the gas chamber, and after the screams subsided the guards will come inside
and remove any artificial limbs, glasses, hair, and teeth before dragging the corpses to the
incinerators. Ashes of the bodies were also buried or used as fertilizer. As the Soviets
continued to reach German lands, the concentration camps were demolished one by one
to hide the atrocious crime committed by the Germans, but some survived camps
survived and those who survived were traumatized by their experience. And this is one of
the worst manifestations of Nationalism.

Therefore I conclude that, because of the rise of Nationalism in the 20th century. It
also had the worst manifestations because of it, the Holocaust was one of the worst
tragedy of Humankind. Because of different religion and culture, the other was
suppressed because of differences.