Throughout history,
discrimination and prejudice have led to some of the most gruesome and horrific
events in history. Two of these include the Holocaust and the African Slave
Trade.
The Holocaust is one of
the most well-known and devastating events in history. Six million people were
killed because of a single vision of racial superiority. This process, which
the Nazis called the “Final Solution” is what disgusts and terrifies me the
most. I don’t know how anyone could make themselves kill so many people.
However, what is also terrifying is what was happening to Jews before the Final
Solution. There was so much Nazi propaganda towards Jews that perpetuated this
idea that someone is lower than you just because of their ethnic background. Jews
were blamed for the German loss of WWI, required to wear stars on their chest,
and had their property vandalized by non-Jewish Germans. Then, they were forced
out of their homes and into concentration camps where they were deliberately
starved, overworked, experimented on, and/or executed. These concentration
camps existed for over ten years. I cannot imagine the pain and suffering that
these people went through while in these camps, not to mention the fear that
they would never see their loved ones again. Though the survivors of these
camps were liberated from 1944-1945, many could not return home because they
had lost their families, were denounced by their non-Jewish neighbors, or
suffered from trauma because of the horrible treatment they suffered.
The African Slave Trade
is more well-known, but less talked about. The trade that we usually learn
about in school began in the 1500s, but the Slave Trade really has roots as
early as 650 CE. During this time, 4-6 million slaves were caravanned out of
Africa by Arab, Berber, and other African traders. In fact, native Africans
were the ones who would capture slaves in the first place. Slaves were usually
captured as prisoners of war, and then traded to other tribes or people. After
1500, though, the slavery business became lucrative. European settlers collected
slaves from Africa – as well as other continents – because they needed a labor
force in their colonies. As settlers came to realize that African slaves were
more suitable to the conditions in the new world and more immune to diseases
than others, Africa became the primary supplier of slaves. Between 9 and 11
million people were shipped out of Africa by Europeans. This journey, known as
the Middle Passage, was harsh and cruel. People were crammed into boats so
tightly that they had to lie in each others’ feces and urine, were abused,
poorly fed, and caught diseases quickly. Many people died during this journey,
and the ones who didn't went to the Americas to be treated as a piece of
property.
It was hard to see the
similarities between these two events at first. But, as I did my research, I
realized that they were more similar than I thought. In both cases, the victims
were turned on by their own people. In Nazi Germany, Jewish Germans were harassed,
shunned, and killed by non-Jewish Germans, and Africans were captured and sold
by other Africans. Also, the victims of the Holocaust and the Slave Trade were
treated horribly- not only being abused but tortured, malnourished, and neglected.
They were also both cases of extreme racism and discrimination. Because of the
belief that one race was superior over the other, people were able to “justify”
inhumane treatments toward other people, and millions of people died because of
this.
The sad thing is that
these are not the only examples of this type of mass abuse and killing in
history. What’s even sadder is that racial discrimination and hatred still goes
on today. It horrifies me to think that real people could have committed these
acts, and even more that they could have convinced themselves it was an okay
thing to do. I can never understand what it would have been like for these
people to suffer and not be able to do anything about it. Luckily, people today
are more aware of what’s going on in the world, and genocides and slavery are
less likely to happen. That is not to say that they are non-existent today.
Slavery exists all over the place, and genocides have been happening for
thousands of years. But, education and understanding of other people has helped
people become active in stopping atrocities like this. The one thing that gives
me hope is that there are people out there fighting inhumane acts like this and
trying to free the victims, and I hope that I can eventually become one of them
to make the world a safer place.
