Rough Draft
Introduction
Preface
Before I begin discussing my first point, I just wanted to note that my references I make to the holocaust will be from Night, a non-fiction novel written by the holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. If you’re not my english teacher and haven’t already read this, I would recommend reading the book or a quick overview of the themes in it to familiarize yourself with the topics in this video. Anyways, without any further ado, let’s start with the first topic.
Body 1 - Discrimination
Modern-day discrimination may not be as catastrophic as it was during the holocaust, but us humans still continue to discriminate others solely for their differences. In the novel Night, the Jewish were forced to wear yellow stars to publicly display their faith. When asked about his opinion on the matter, Eliezer’s father responded saying: “The yellow star? So what? It’s not lethal…”. Spoiler alert: this line was foreshadowing how the yellow star was indeed lethal and how it resulted in the father’s persecution and death; if he didn’t wear that star to publicly display his faith, the Nazis would have no way of distinguishing his differences to the rest of the Germans. Nonetheless, it’s fascinating to see how easily the Gestapo’s reputation for others can be swayed with the simple declaration of faith.
Although different ethnicities don’t have to wear a badge, they tend to express themselves through various racial and ethnical features. Through these differences, people become vulnerable to harassment and cruel treatment, even if such differences are completely irrelevant to the scenario.
Take the recent experience my cousins had at Costco, which also happened to be featured on local news, as an example. What was intended to be an ordinary grocery expedition with family turned into a blatant case of discrimination. As they were waiting in line, about to check out, a man was persistent in having them “socially distance”, shouting lines such as “you need to social distance, you need to stay six feet away from us”. Of course, he also complemented his remarks with sprinkles of derogatory words and uninviting glares. On a side note, I just want to point out how he says “us”, as if he’s speaking on behalf of all white people. The thing is, my cousins weren’t even in the wrong; they were following social distancing precautions, and were standing on the appropriate floor markings established by Costco. However, even after following the rules just like everyone else, they experienced discrimination solely because of their skin color. There are two conclusions I came to.
First, much like the ongoing pandemic, discrimination continues to transmorph into multiple variants that wreak havoc on societal groups; whether it be the everlasting prejudice against black people since slavery, the alarming amount of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada, or the emerging discrimination towards Asian people due to the COVID outbreak, virtually every culture or race is undergoing some form of opposing bigotry. In both cases, victims are treated differently due to personal identities, and the severity of their undeserved adversity is completely out of their control.
Second, such prejudice is becoming commonplace. My cousins were merely shopping for groceries. What? It’s not like they were holding up signs saying “please harass me for following proper COVID protocols”.
To conclude, it’s evident society hasn’t moved on from discrimination, and is instead evolving the forms and prevalence of it.
Moving on, let’s put less focus on society as a whole and focus on something more personal: the people closest to us.
Body 2 - Relationships
Much like the shift in theme from selflessness to selfishness featured in the novel, people are willing to compromise their trust and connection with others for their own personal gains. Being stripped of their possessions and identity, the privilege of being able to stay with family provided Elie and his father the motivation to survive in order to protect each other. However, as the book progresses, hints of family betrayal start to occur. In one instance, when a piece of bread landed in a wagon full of starving men, a son was willing to kill his own dying father for a single crumb of bread:
“Meir, my little Meir! Don’t you recognize me … You’re killing your father … I have bread … for you too … for you too … "
“Nobody cared. His son searched him, took the crust of bread, and began to devour it” (Page 101)
Even Eliezer begins to shift into such a mindset; after spending days relocating to different shelters on foot during winter, Eliezer’s father’s body begins to deteriorate, and his malnutrition gets the better of him. As a Schutzstaffel officer approached him, he continued to beg Eliezer for water, but Eliezer didn’t do anything. His father was abused by the officer, and he still continued to plead, but Eliezer didn’t do anything. When he woke up the next morning, his father disappeared, along with all the efforts he made towards protecting him. He disregarded his relationship with his father, and ignored him as if he was a complete stranger, all to not jeopardize his own survival.
This same concept is still frighteningly probable in our own personal relationships, even if they’ve been our life-long parents or most trustworthy friends. For example, I had a friend who I was fairly close with; we would play games together, confide in each other, and overall, I trusted him. You could sense his authenticity, and he was no stranger to putting the needs of others before himself. However, this image I had of him quickly deteriorated from a single experience. His mouse had recently broken, and he was offering to buy one of my previously used mice. The only problem was that he didn’t have any money, so I decided to give him a friendly discount and give him the opportunity to pay me back on a later date. After a year of constant reminders and the new clothes I see him wear at school, I gave up on trying to restore the relationship and get my money back. Our relationship has frayed since then, but there are times where he comes to me for help and talks like nothing ever happened. The experience definitely was not as monumental as Eliezer’s, but I still came away with some points to ponder upon. What’s preventing him from paying me back when he obviously has the money to do so? Why does he expect me to help him despite losing my trust? In the end, it boils down to one’s selfishness. Much like Eliezer’s prioritization of his own health despite his father’s pleas, my friend prefers to be $40 richer in comparison to repairing his relationship with me despite my reminders. However, upon further contemplation, it’s possible that my friend’s sense of selfishness is rooted in something other than his true motives…
Body 3 - Identity
Elizier’s loss of identity throughout his experience in the holocaust parallels the oppressive control society has regarding our self-worth and interests.
As soon as Eliezer entered the concentration camp, he was stripped of his identity and was given a new one. His name was reduced to mere numbers and letters, his clothes were swapped, and all the features that made Eliezer Eliezer were replaced. When asked what age he was, he responded with:
“Fifteen.” “No. You’re eighteen.” “But I’m not,” I said. “I’m fifteen.” “Fool. Listen to what I say.”
As a result, he became accustomed to suppressing his true self, and his father had to undergo the same conformation. When asked a second time, he responded the way they wanted him to:
“Your age?” “I’m eighteen.” My voice was trembling. “In good health?” “Yes.” “Your profession?” “Farmer,” I heard myself saying.
Despite all this dehumanization, there was one aspect that captured the attention of others: his golden crown. In fact, it increased his value from simply being an average prisoner, but in reality, such a status wasn’t favorable; a dentist was fantasizing over it upon his dental checkup, and other people of higher power seeked to take it from him.
In today’s day and age, whether it be how our parents impose our professions (doctors), how social media standardizes our appearance (makeup), or how consumerism influences our possessions, our identity is still greatly controlled by our environment. It’s not like we’re held at gunpoint or are risking our nutrition if we don’t follow these rules, but the fact that such major parts of our lives are not always in our control is still concerning. As a result, we may face something even worse than death: living an artificial life. Instead of pursuing our passions and living the life we want to, we may end up working a 9-5 office job that we dread, hiding our true appearance with layers of makeup, or spending excessive amounts of money on meaningless products, all with the means to conform to society’s standards. Instead of valuing our personality and aspirations, we base our self-worth on appearance and wealth as if our only worthy feature is a golden crown. However, it isn’t too late to escape from such shackles; we have the capability to regain our freedom and authenticity and escape from the loss of individuality instigated by society’s modern genocide, but instead, we just choose to do nothing.
Body 4 - Courage
Similar to the lack of rebellion by the Jews against the Nazis, we have the capability to regain control over our lives, but we lack the courage to do so. After the Nazis established their dominance by stripping the Jews of their identity, some of the prisoners were eager to revolt and escape to other cities to spread the news:
“We must do something. We can’t let them kill us like that, like cattle in the slaughterhouse. We must revolt.” There were, among us, a few tough young men. They actually had knives and were urging us to attack the armed guards.”
There was an opportunity to escape, and they had the tools to do so, but they lacked the courage to execute. As a result, they willingly admitted defeat, and gave the Nazis complete reign over them.
We are fully capable of improving ourselves and our circumstances, but we choose not to due to the fear of possible consequences that may result from it. A modern example of this, which I’m no stranger to, is how the judgement of others may prevent us from expressing ourselves and taking on various opportunities. During childhood, I was fairly extroverted and didn’t worry about what people thought of me. However, as I grew older and became more observant, I began to worry about my appearance and how others perceive me. Whether it be my acne, my hairstyle, or the ways I show affection to my parents, I feared the possible inadequacy and negative attention that could have resulted from such aspects of my character. As the thoughts kept lingering in my mind, it’s manifested into my social anxiety and lack of confidence. Consequently, I refused to go to the YMCA with friends during summer vacations and learn more about the classmates around me I’ve been surrounded with for years, all because of the self-limiting shackles I confined myself in. Out of all these ideas mentioned, I feel like this is the most depressing idea of them all, as it nullifies the freedom of choice our lives have granted us. As a result, millions of personalities, passions, dreams, and lives have been extinguished from this single fear. Without even realizing it, we’re creating and sustaining the genocide towards human individuality.
Conclusion
It’s disturbing to see the similarities in human nature our present-day society has with an act of genocide like the holocaust. Discrimination has become more commonplace and more groups have become victims to different forms and levels of prejudice. Us humans are still willing to sacrifice our most intimate relationships out of pure selfishness and personal gain. Lastly, by adopting society’s values as our own, we’re continuing to abandon our own identities, without mustering the courage to reclaim and protect it. By comparing it to my own modern-day experiences and observations, I’ve realized that some of the most horrific and surreal concepts in the holocaust are just extreme applications of some of humanity’s fundamental motives. Is it possible to modify such characteristics deeply rooted in human nature, or will history simply continue to repeat itself?