Bassim
VIP Member
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2008
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Bosnian
- Home Country
- Bosnia Herzegovina
- Current Location
- Sweden
Please would you proofread my text. I called it "SHOAH", after the well-known documentary about Holocaust.
There is a scene in Claude Lanzmann's 10-hour documentary “Shoah” which come up in my mind very often. A former prisoner, a man who had worked in a gas chamber in Auschwitz was telling the story about newly arrived transport of Jews from a city in central Europe. Among hundreds of people, there was a woman who recognized one of the members of the “Sonderkommando.” They knew each other well before the war broke out.
She asked him what was going to happen with them. It was strictly forbidden for the prisoners working in the “Sonderkommando” to speak to anyone, but the man, despite his fear, told her that they all were going to be gassed and burned in the ovens. Desperately, she went to the women with children and told them the horrible truth. They laughed at her and did not want to believe her words. Then she turned to the men, hoping that at least they would do something. But they told her that was crazy and mocked her. It was unimaginable that the Germans could be so cruel, they said.
She was so despairing that she started scratching her face with her nails. But nothing could lift her fellow countrymen out of their naivety and ignorance.
When the commander discovered what was going on, he ordered the whole transport to be gassed, except her. When the others had been killed, the SS men turned to her and tortured her for hours until she told them the name of the prisoner who had told her the truth. Finally they threw them both still alive into the infernal oven.
This is a horrific story, which I remember whenever I see somebody trying to tell his fellow citizens the truth, which they unfortunately do not want to hear. His or her powerfulness must be crushing, because if one is taught as a child to be honest and speak the truth, one cannot stay silent and simply pretend that white is black and vice versa.
However, in our civilization, those who speak the truth and want to stay faithful to their ideals and moral values, are usually seen as strange, if not outright mad. They risk to be isolated because their presence in the group will always be seen as opposition, a potential threat to society, for even the most democratic society demands obedience. True, it is not absolute obedience as in the case of the Nazi Germany and other dictatorships, but still many leaders in a democracy dream about having absolute power and subjects who will not question their decisions, and instead blindly follow their plans and ideas.
Nazis used to imprison their potential enemies and others who they saw as “deviant” in concentration camps, and Stalin did the same with his own people sending them to the cold Siberia where they became slaves. However, modern democracies do not need to employ such drastic measures. One can control crowds without beating, imprisoning and torturing them. One can even make them believe that yellow colour is actually green and red blue. One can even engage a famous professor who will write a thick book in which he “scientifically” can prove that yellow is green and red blue. ..
Unfortunately, no other creature on earth is susceptible to manipulations and propaganda as human beings. One cannot manipulate a wolf and teach him to hate another wolf and make him believe that another wolf is his worst enemy, or train a tiger to despise other tigers or other animals. Even a dreadfully hungry animal will stay fateful to its nature and will not debase itself. However, when it is about us, human beings, one cannot be sure...
TO BE CONTINUED
There is a scene in Claude Lanzmann's 10-hour documentary “Shoah” which come up in my mind very often. A former prisoner, a man who had worked in a gas chamber in Auschwitz was telling the story about newly arrived transport of Jews from a city in central Europe. Among hundreds of people, there was a woman who recognized one of the members of the “Sonderkommando.” They knew each other well before the war broke out.
She asked him what was going to happen with them. It was strictly forbidden for the prisoners working in the “Sonderkommando” to speak to anyone, but the man, despite his fear, told her that they all were going to be gassed and burned in the ovens. Desperately, she went to the women with children and told them the horrible truth. They laughed at her and did not want to believe her words. Then she turned to the men, hoping that at least they would do something. But they told her that was crazy and mocked her. It was unimaginable that the Germans could be so cruel, they said.
She was so despairing that she started scratching her face with her nails. But nothing could lift her fellow countrymen out of their naivety and ignorance.
When the commander discovered what was going on, he ordered the whole transport to be gassed, except her. When the others had been killed, the SS men turned to her and tortured her for hours until she told them the name of the prisoner who had told her the truth. Finally they threw them both still alive into the infernal oven.
This is a horrific story, which I remember whenever I see somebody trying to tell his fellow citizens the truth, which they unfortunately do not want to hear. His or her powerfulness must be crushing, because if one is taught as a child to be honest and speak the truth, one cannot stay silent and simply pretend that white is black and vice versa.
However, in our civilization, those who speak the truth and want to stay faithful to their ideals and moral values, are usually seen as strange, if not outright mad. They risk to be isolated because their presence in the group will always be seen as opposition, a potential threat to society, for even the most democratic society demands obedience. True, it is not absolute obedience as in the case of the Nazi Germany and other dictatorships, but still many leaders in a democracy dream about having absolute power and subjects who will not question their decisions, and instead blindly follow their plans and ideas.
Nazis used to imprison their potential enemies and others who they saw as “deviant” in concentration camps, and Stalin did the same with his own people sending them to the cold Siberia where they became slaves. However, modern democracies do not need to employ such drastic measures. One can control crowds without beating, imprisoning and torturing them. One can even make them believe that yellow colour is actually green and red blue. One can even engage a famous professor who will write a thick book in which he “scientifically” can prove that yellow is green and red blue. ..
Unfortunately, no other creature on earth is susceptible to manipulations and propaganda as human beings. One cannot manipulate a wolf and teach him to hate another wolf and make him believe that another wolf is his worst enemy, or train a tiger to despise other tigers or other animals. Even a dreadfully hungry animal will stay fateful to its nature and will not debase itself. However, when it is about us, human beings, one cannot be sure...
TO BE CONTINUED
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