I have always thought of Hilter as the classic villain and his regime terrorizing everyone into complying with his insane evil. But the book Garden of Beasts by Jeffrey Deaver painted a picture that is a lot more complicated and chilling—chilling because it reminded me of Jeffrey Dahmer; a complex evil beneath a facade of normalcy. It makes sense that the book's protagonist is also a man of questionable morals—a shade of grey, if you will (kind of like Assassin's Creed).
What struck my attention the most initially, is the utter incongruity of the 1936 Olympics being held in Nazi Germany as depicted in the book. At first I thought it is fictitious but I was mind-blown to learn that it did indeed happen. What? Nations extending good will to Hitler's horrifying regime? Olympics amidst a bloodbath? The book went on to show that children were conditioned to Hitler's ideology in schools—all of which got me to read about it more.
Hitler had a sister whom he financially supported until his death and when she got to know about the Holocaust, she did not believe that Hitler would do such a thing. In fact, Hitler and his inner circle seemed normal as opposed to psychotic killers and they even loved their dogs. People went about their business, most of them blissfully unaware or apathetic about the brutality hurled on the Jews.
So what was the mentality behind the massacre of the Jews? To Hitler and his buddies, the Jews were subhuman—they were lesser. They were not worthy of moral consideration. So their extermination was an inevitability. But they would not call it a systematic murder, they used a euphemism instead: "The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem". Of course it's not murder! It's like "culling"!
But surely normal people must've been forced to comply with this madness? That is not the case. The actual massacres were carried out by Nazi army units called Einsatzgruppen who were well, people and they were not threatened or forced to do it. For example, at the massacre at Babi Yar (almost 34,000 Jews brought to the ravine and killed with machine guns, which took 2 days), these soldiers forced the Jews to strip naked, lined them up and shot them, even children and babies. It was very messy. Some people did not just die, some were bloodied but alive, and were shot to death later.
A few of the soldiers were bloodthirsty and enjoyed it. Only a few quit. Most considered it as just them doing their job and besides, Jews were lesser anyways—not like they were shooting their own kind! Since the murders were brutal and bloody, and did have a demoralizing effect on the troops. they devised a more "humane", efficient method of killing: they constructed "slaughterhouses": the "concentration camps" equipped with gas chambers. The Jews who were confined in ghettos out of public sight, were transported in horrific conditions to be killed (some dying on the way), but their oppressors did not let on that they will be murdered, so more "humane".
The Nazis also experimented on the Jews since they were to be killed anyways and considered lesser than true humans. Besides, it's for science so deemed a valid justification. Hence, horrific mutilation and testing were done on the Jews in the name of science.
After all of that was over and looking back did most people really got to understand the shocking cruelty and suffering the Jews underwent, ponder over the death toll and acknowledge that the hate, slavery and killing of Jews were fundamentally wrong.
Ring any bells?
What I read gave me an insight into the juxtaposition of the Holocaust with the plight of nonhuman animals. I've come across news of Holocaust survivors championing the cause of animal rights.
Holocaust survivor, Dr. Alex Hershaft compares Nazi led treatment of
Jews to the treatment of animals in slaughterhouses.
It was ages ago that I read Plead Mercy by Anne Ranasinghe who is again a victim of the Holocaust speaking up about a bull being exploited and evoking his pain. Her poem Vivere in Pace is a brilliant work that first gave me a glimpse of the real horror of the Holocaust (next being Anne Frank's story) though it is now that I've come to appreciate it the most. In fact, the meteoric rise of veganism in Israel is being alluded to "the Jews, having been subjected to relentless persecution and hostility over the ages, have an easier time empathizing with the plight of other oppressed minorities" (Vegan Strategist).
Maybe it's time to cultivate some empathy for the horrific suffering that goes on behind closed walls, which we fund with our own wallets. Better to change now than say mea culpa later over the bodies of billions.
