Kaely Bernal

Jolly

Honors English 7b

11 April 2022

Dehumanization: the act of making someone feel or appear less than human.

This was an act that was normalized during the Holocaust, the genocide that would end

up killing over six million Jews and other minorities during World War II in Europe. In the

present day the war between Russia and Ukraine has caused many Ukrainian citizens

to be killed simply because they were Ukrainian. This war is not at the scale of the

Holocaust, but it is still a matter that should not be pushed away. There are many

important lessons that can be learned from the Holocaust, such as the danger of being

silent, understanding how dehumanization works and how ordinary citizens were

completely brainwashed.

To begin with, the Holocaust has taught many people that silence is no longer an

option. During the Holocaust civilians didn’t speak out of fear that they would be

punished; however, this allowed the genocide to continue. There are a number of ways

you can speak out on a cause without bringing attention to yourself. Malala Yousafzai,

an activist for women's education started off by anonymously publishing about life under

the Taliban when she was 11. Although this might not seem like much, this was how she

let others know that what was happening in Pakistan was not right. She has motivated

other people around the world to speak out on the problems affecting them and how they

could be improved. Staying silent means there will be no change and no change leads
to more suffering. To others silence means you find nothing wrong with what is

happening and that you agree with the problem at hand. Nowadays, people have

realized the problems in society and have started speaking out against them. This has

been seen in the form of protests, petitions and other ways that will support the cause. In

order to stop more mass killings everyone must realize that staying silent is dangerous.

Following the silence, discrimination will begin and it will lead to dehumanization.

Many Jews and other minorities were already being persecuted prior to the genocide. An

example would be the Jehovas Witnesses, a religious group who refused to swear

allegiance to any wordly government. Before the Nazis came into power there were

bans on their literature and they could be charged with illegal pedling for meeting in

groups. This is one example of a restriction put on other groups as they were also being

targeted. Things quickly escalated and soon Jehova’s Witnesses, like Jews and many

others, were being sent to concentration camps where a lot of them would be facing

death. At concentration camps they were given little food, water and made them work in

harsh conditions. Nazis did not see them as human beings, they saw them as objects

not worthy of being alive. Another example of dehumanization is when placing people

into concentration camps instead of calling them by their names, they would tattoo

numbers on them. Once given a number your no name no longer existed. This act

demonstrates how their lives meant nothing to them. Grouping them together, exhausting

them, it was all to reduce their humanity. Killing an insect does not affect anyone. That is

how the Nazis saw the Jews and other minority groups. It is much easier to kill someone

once you no longer see them as humans. Understanding how dehumanizing others

works will help us prevent it from ever happening again in the future.
 People usually find out about the problems after they have already started and

have caused an irreparable amount of damage. During the Nazis rule propaganda was

something that was used very often. Along with propaganda Hitler gave speeches that

would either motivate people to join him or intimidate them into joining him. German

citizens had no other choice but to join him fearing that if they did not, they would be

targeted. A similar issue is happening with Russia and the country’s people. A number

of their social media platforms have been banned since the war has started. The

government is controlling what their people are seeing to make sure there is no

retaliation against them. Both Russian and German citizens were in a state of confusion,

they only knew what they were being told. You can't blame the people saying they could

have helped because they could have been brainwashed and have been receiving the

wrong information the whole time. .

As has been noted, there are a number of lessons to be learned from the

Holocaust but three important ones to keep in mind are the dangers of one not speaking

up, the understanding of being dehumanized and how citizens can be mainipulated.

There are plenty of organizations around the world trying their best to free their people

from inhumane conditions but they can’t do it all by themselves. Learning about the

Holocaust can encourage others to help where they see it is needed.