Peter Bixby

Hitler the Churches and the Holocaust

Professor Lorenz Reibling

25 October 2017

Holocaust Symposium Reflection

I always look forward to the symposiums that you require students in your course

to go to, and it was great to see a full house for the one last Wednesday. Starting off with

Professor Michalczyk, whom we had the pleasure of meeting in class the prior week, I

found his lecture on the composition and progression of genocide very intriguing. It was

rewarding to connect our research of the Holocaust to these eight stages and observe how

each applied to the persecution of Jews under the Nazi regime. However, even more

informative was how applicable these steps were to the other genocides that have occurred

around the world. From the dehumanization of Tutsis as cockroaches during the Rwandan

genocide, to the organization of death squads in Cambodia and Rwanda, where bullets

must not be wasted was the rule of their extermination processes, to denial which has

been seen time and time again, and still persists in regards to the Armenian genocide, its

frightening to see simple yet fitting this classification can be. Through the points brought

up in Professor Michalcyks lecture, hopefully more people can be preemptive in

preventing atrocities like the aforementioned from occurring again. Individuals must

recognize early on that if any of these signs occur, progression to the next steps isnt just

likely, its definite. Intervention and persecution of those responsible must occur because,

after all, the strongest antidote to genocide is justice.

 Moving on to Chritoph Wilker and Max Woenhards lectures, it was refreshing to

learn more about the persecution of Jehovahs Witnesses, that we touched upon frequently

last semester in Resistance: Call to Action. Hearing stories about individual Witnesses who

suffered persecution because of the steadfast adherence to their belief system always

astonishes me. The fact that these individuals were offered the chance to avoid persecution

in exchange renouncing beliefs, but instead kept choosing to act displays resilience in the

face of evil that brings honor to such a heinous event. Their strong moral standards and

unrelenting faith made it possible for them to say no to Nazi demands. Woenhard also gave

the example of Narciso Riet who smuggled banned literature into Germany for Witnesses to

read, similar to stories I heard last year of Watchtower publications making their way into

camps through the efforts of networks of Jehovahs Witnesses. Since similar persecution is

appearing in Russia, against both Witnesses and other minority religious groups, it is

important now more than ever to hear these stories and connect them to the present day.

We could all benefit from observing the courageous acts of these individuals, and hopefully

we can exhibit similar strength in standing up to these oppressive regimes and preventing

history from repeating itself.