Why students should learn about the Holocaust

Essay by cagirl45Junior High, 8th grade February 2004

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The Holocaust was a horrific event in human history, but why do we need to learn about it when there have been so many other horrible events where people died because of their religion or race? Although there have been other atrocious events, the Holocaust is a modern day example of how hatred and discrimination can hurt so many. People will do things that they wouldn't normally do when their society says that it is the right thing to do. Also, discrimination against someone because of their race, culture, or religion can cause hatred towards that person, even if it doesn't start that way. Lastly, when people need someone to blame for their problems they will turn to anything or anyone, even if it isn't the best thing. These are all things that can and need to be learned from the Holocaust, and they are why we should learn about the Holocaust.

In Germany during the Great Depression, people were poor and jobless just like the rest of the world and they wanted someone to blame. In comes Adolf Hitler, the leader of the National Socialist German Worker's Party. He came into power because he had someone to blame, the Jews. All the non-Jewish Germans loved having someone to blame for their own misfortunes, so they went along with it. The lesson from this is that you should never blame your own problems on something or somebody else. This led to the discrimination of Jews in Germany.

The discrimination against the Jews in Nazi Germany started out not much worse than the discrimination against blacks in our own country. Jews were not allowed the basic rights that non-Jews had, just like the blacks were not given the same rights as whites in America. The big difference in...