Yom HaShoah

Holocaust Remembrance Day

It’s spooky to say happy HaShoah.   But I hope your day is pleasant, in any case.   

Why did Hitler hate Jews?  Why did Germany fall in line?  

I guess he never met any Jews he liked.  And he believed racists without questioning them.  And was basically a homicidal maniac.  And found it expedient for power, I guess.   Maybe he thought Christ wanted him to.   Or the trope that Jews control everything, and are therefore responsible for everything bad.   Personally, I don’t like the concept of thinking your people are the chosen elect of an all-knowing, almighty God (at the implied expense of everyone else).

He definitely didn’t like the jewish commandment that Thou Shalt Not Kill.   Put simply, Hitler was a demon.   He demonized Jews, so maybe we shouldn't demonize him?   Well, let's just say he was bad.   Not the nicest guy.  A hater.  A depraved, evil, monster.   Fricking wicked.  Just about everyone agrees, if there's a Hell, he's there.   This guy was a sick fuck.

People hate themselves, and hate life, and are full of resentments, and life seems meaningless and absurd, and people want, need harm, pain, death, suffering, misery, revenge.   The devil stokes this.  Some people like war (warlocks?).   One match can cause burn an entire forest, and likewise years of kindness, compassion, love, and happiness can be obviated by an insane demon out for blood.   And some philosophers even justify mass murder on the basis of stupid arguments like overpopulation or people being nonhuman or -in the German case- liebensraum (a need for living space).

Genocide, the killing of a race, that is to say an entire class of human beings, (well, attempted anyway, not achieved thank goodness), is still a problem in different parts of the world.  I imagine it’s a problem among uneducated and ignorant people, who believe what they’re told, are easily swayed by hateful populists, and think groups of people are evil, and aren’t just like them, in fact.  

6 million jews were killed.   And others, too, in the concentration camps.  Piles of bones, like in Cambodia.  Incinerated to dust in ovens.  Systematically, industrially, efficiently, and apparently without much compunction.   I read Maus.  I recommend.  Books are good.   Books are fucking amazing.   Try understanding other people, instead of burning the wisdom and creativity of other minds.  

We learned about human nature.   About our capacity for evil.  Stupidity, malice, social control, and scapegoating and vulnerability.   We learned about the power of madness and resentment.  How religion and politics don’t always make for polite dinner table conversation.   And absolute fucking horror. 

Forgiveness is a tall order, but necessary, I think.  It has to come individually, from compassion, understanding, and the desire to end a cycle of violence, retaliation, and ongoing misery.   It’s tempting to want to say We do not forgive, and we do not forget, before you murder every last perpetrator, with malice, hate, and even cruelty.  We all have issues.   Can’t we all just get along?   Actually, yes, I think. 

It’s scary to think how rationally the insanity was carried out.   Seal sang we’re never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy.  It’s good to understand each other, even (and especially) the insane.  God bless.