Friday, December 21, 2012

A WONDERFUL REFLECTION BY ANA RUBIO


A memory for the victims

 

 

Sixty-seven years after the Second War World, we are still asking ourselves how to remember properly the millions of people who were killed in that period of time. Currently, a lot of people ask themselves: what is the aim of that remembrance?; why should we remember such an evil era?; what’s for?

The Holocaust was not only a Jewish tragedy. Eleven million people were annihilated and murdered in concentration camps. Four million of them were Jews; the rest belonged to “races” as gypsies, Slavs, Latinos… others were sorted as handicapped, incurable patients and so on. All of them were labeled as “lives unworthy to live”. But, how should we classify these other victims of the Holocaust, nowadays? Maybe as the so-called, “collateral damages”?

Nazism never fought against a collective, but against the whole humanity. For Nazi people, humankind was something distasteful and repulsive. It was a stigma. The thing is that, they were looking for a sort of creature who couldn’t think by itself, who was able to sacrifice its own life in favor of the Third Reich, it means, the Führer. They wanted some kind of automatons without personality or autonomy; people ready to be manipulated by them; people whose identity were to be a membership of a special Mass, the chosen one (the Volk). People capable of putting others down; to make them feel stupid and inferior. And they often made a game and a joke of it.

In this context, remember it is extremely important. We can’t forget any single victim; we can’t forget how the human being became a being without a soul, without a conscience, without any sympathy at all. They were absolutely crass, that is, rude and insensitive. The main reasons for remembering are: firstly, to avoid these kind of events now and in the future; those evil events don’t have to happen again and on the other hand, humanity has the duty today to restore victims’ identity and dignity. Then, remembrance is in order to ask for justice, but not for a correct political one. Remembrance demands an alterative justice, that is, a justice in favor of everyone. A sort of justice whose objective is to restore humanity in every person, victim or murderer.

Of course, it doesn’t mean not to punish criminal people, but to make them understand the evil nature of their crimes. Evil in Auschwitz is the attempt to make evil disappear, namely the crime of criminal acts and consciousness. It searches for control over all conduct and all criteria of value and moral.

 

The exercised Evil has no moral responsibility in man. Criminal man is not longer a monster, even by way of the "Portrait of Dorian Grey". Evil makes not villain people repugnant or disgusting in their interiority or exteriority. In other words, Evil is as non-reflection of the human representation of "Dracula". The human figure of this character cannot be reflected in the mirror because it no longer exists; Dracula is pure Evil. Then Evil takes root in the depths of each being. It has spent their being and it is presented in its annihilator purity as being, as well.

 

So, accepting this Evil people are isolated from reality as a corporeal, knowing, thinking and reflective self.  Evil that, at first, is "doing" in people criminal actions, as a routine becomes a direction of the inner as well as the outer being as a sadistic omnipotence, its main life principle. Sadism turns out to be an aspect of omnipotence –control over lives, an endeavor to stamp out one’s own will. Because of this, the human being becomes a mere man heartless, unthinking, dependent, fascinated and voluntarily possessed by Evil.

 

            Let us consider what they defended that they didn’t think that their acts were bad; they only obeyed orders. It meant that they didn’t need to ask themselves for the reasons for and the right or wrong of the facts, as well. It was not their business at all that they didn’t want any responsibility. Responsibility is related to freedom. Only free people can be responsible and we can’t forget that they were not free to choose anything; they were automatons! However, what it’s true is that they freely chose their condition of no human being and that makes them guilty and responsible of each of their crimes.

 

 

Ana Rubio

Doctor in Theology

Master in Philosophy

1 comment:

  1. Hi,

    Thank you for your thoughts. As I read them, I thought through my own position on this matter, and I sincerely hope you do not mind me espousing on a little of it with you. I, too, hope that we never forget what happen 67 years ago to humanity. People were murdered because of their nationality, the length of their noses or the color of their skin. However, I believe we have, because that is still happening today.

    We see genocide taking place all over the world, and why aren't we crying out? Why aren't we saying enough is enough? I believe it is because we have taken on too much responsibilty. We have taken controlled thinking that man can make everything better, but can we? Have we? I don't think so.

    The evil within us demand that we make a decision between what is evil/evil and what is evil/good. The evil/evil says that it is wrong to wipe out a nation of people, but the evil/good in us say it is alright to kill a fetus that is not yet three months old. The failure of taking too much responsibility result in us thinking that we can control everything around and about us. When it doesn't turn out as we would like, we simply get rid of it.

    It is my belief that true responsibility can only be taken when we change the way we think. It is out of our hearts that evils like murder, hatred, prejudice, jealousy and all the other evils receive life and play themselves out in our lives. They become a part of our mind, and what we think, is what we do, and what we act out. That is what happened 67 years ago, and that is what is still happening today.

    Living here in Germany, I can honestly say that the majority of the German people and that includes the younger generations still have a problem acknowledging their part in the massacre of millions of people. Many still hide under the blanket of 'We didn't know' or 'I didn't do anything. I wasn't born at that time.' It is sad, but it is so.

    So in my opinion a part, or a small part of the solution lies in our recognition of the fact that the evil can only be conquered when we realize that we were born with the evil inside of us and that evil must be cleansed. We then began to renew our minds and began to understand that we were born as a family, regardless of what nationality or skin color we have.

    When we realize that humanity itself is one race and that when we hurt another member of humanity then the evil in us has taken over, we can then accept responsibility for our own actions , and unlike Cain, we will not run away and hide, and reply as he did when God asked him where is Abel, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

    I hope I make sense with my thoughts. Thank you for providing me with an opportunity to think about this topic of responsibilty before i enter into the year 2013.

    Your article was extremely inspiring because it cause me to assess my own position.

    Shalom,
    Patti

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