Linnea Millen

Ms. Wertz-Orbaugh
January 12, 2016
Knowledge of the Holocaust
I feel as though the Holocaust, being a tremendously tragic course of
events that took place in our worlds history is extremely important to be
taught and understood. Unfortunately through out my last 12 years of
education I feel as though I have only learned a limited amount about the
Holocaust; facts and history that the general public could agree they have
learned as well. Facts about Anne Frank, and the life in hiding she lived, as
well as her struggles with her family in interment camps. In the fifth Grade I
read the Anne Frank Diary, which was heartbreaking to read as a young girl
who though was living in a completely different time, and under drastically
different circumstance could empathize with another young girl relatively
close in age. This same year my teacher grazed over topics of the holocaust
however, teaching never went into too much depth. My sophomore year of
high school I was in a cultural minorities class and learned about Eugenics
that occurred in the mid 1900s and how it was similar to the acts during the
Holocaust.
As for my baseline knowledge of what occurred I of course know who
began the Holocaust and who it targeted, as well as the countries it took
place in. However, I would love for my knowledge to travel even further than
this. I want to more deeply understand why people were so easily

manipulated by Hitler and his officials, and why it took so many deaths, and
years for people to recognize the wrong in what was taking place. On a
deeper level I would like to understand what kind of tactics Hitler used when
speaking to compel his listeners to believe the words that he was saying. I
really believe that it it interesting that based on just a way that someone
presents themselves, and speaks to people it can compel them enough to
believe things that would typically be considered absurd. People say that
history tends to repeat itself, and I wonder if there could ever be another
leader who use similar methods, and convince a large audience to believe
absurdities they share as did Hitler. Could eugenics ever happen in todays
society?
I would also like to learn more about individuals that were affected and
displaced during this time. From what I understand life was somewhat
manageable up until a certain point, so my question would be when that
particular point was? Did it effect everyone all at once or were some able to
make it by for longer than others. What were some of the first turning point
when Jewish citizens began recognize that their lives were beginning to
change for the worse, and were there popular figures that spoke out against
Hitler to counter act his plans to wipe out all of the Jewish people? Lastly,
what were the opinions other countries around the world that werent
involved with the Holocaust, and what are some of the reasons why those
countries decided to not intervene? I feel as though I do not know enough
about the situation to say definitively that if more countries had intervened

that maybe it all could have been prevented or stoped sooner, and so for
that reason overall I would just like to know more about the countries most
involved at the time.
In conclusion, I feel as though my education about the Holocaust has
been very limited, and for that reason I have so many questions about what
happened, and how it affected the entire world. I really look forward to
learning more this coming semester, and hopefully many of my questions
can be answered!