'For I know the plans that I have for you,'
says the LORD, 'plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.'
Jeremiah 29:11
The Holocaust
The Worst Genocide in Human History
The Jewish People experienced the worst genocide in history. What happened and why 'the Jews'? What drove the Nazis to commit this most horrible systematic mass-extermination of a people?
The Holocaust
The Holocaust was the worst genocide in human history. It was the systematic mass-extermination of Jewish people by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. The 'Final Solution on the Jewish Question' led to the world's most horrific genocide with the death of 6 million Jews, of whom about 1.5 million were children. During the persecution of Jews across Europe during World War II, the Jews were first killed by mass-shootings and buried in mass-graves, before exterminated in concentration camps in gas chambers, after which their bodies were burned. The Holocaust is the best-documented event in history, yet some still seek to deny it.
Throughout much of human history in the last 2,000 years, the Jew was the scapegoat for every ill and misfortune in some societies, and had to take the blame for it all, often by paying the highest price. The Jews were the 'Christ killers,' the well-poisoners, and the greedy middleman - so the propaganda. This anti-Jewish attitude culminated in the Holocaust. Atrocities are always driven by ideology - the Nazi ideology was one of the worst in human history.
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'Anti-Semites of the World,
Unite!
People of Europe,
Free Yourselves!'
-Adolf Hitler
Munich, 13 August 1920
Nazi Ideology
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To the Nazis, Jews were too rich and influential. The dehumanising propaganda machine drove anti-Jewish attitudes to a new level. Before the Nazi rise to power, around 90% of Jews lived in Eastern Europe, North Africa and Asia, mostly in poor, often miserable conditions. There was only a small elite of wealthy and influential Jews in the West. Yet Nazi ideology sought to demonise Jews for all the wrong in Germany. Nazi propaganda also blame Jews for the evils of Communism. Nazi ideology along with Italian Fascist propaganda was spread in the Arab world, contributing to the rise of Arab nationalism. Mussolini sold himself as the 'friend and protector of Islam' (History 1996, 195) in a shrew attempted to undermine the British and French in North Africa and an appetite for territorial expansion: French Tunisia to the west, British Egypt and the Levant to the east. The Nazi Nuremberg racial laws (1935) were celebrated by many in the Arab world, as the right of 'ultra-right-wing political groupings and parties developed' throughout the Middle East 'in conscious imitation of [German] Nazism and Italian fascism' (History 1996, 196).
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Nazi propaganda was, in the words of Viktor E. Frankl, psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor (see below), 'a propaganda against any kind of meaning and against the value of existence itself,' demonstrating 'the worthlessness of human life.' The lives of the people in the concentration camps were considered 'worthy only of death,' yet they were still 'fully exploited to its absolute limit.' It was the total 'devaluation of life,' the ultimate 'debasement and degradation of humankind!' Frankl recalls the debasement and worthlessness of Jewish life as 'not worthy of the soup,' and 'not even worth a lead bullet, just some Zyklon B' (Yes to Life, 25-27). When an ideology can dehumanise a people, eradicating them is the next step - and, worst of all, finds 'justification' among those who believe the ideology. The power of ideology is never to be underestimated.
Voltaire had warned that if you can make people believe absurdities, you can make them commit atrocities. It takes courage to resist the propaganda lie. In view of the horrors of the Soviet gulags, Communist-type concentration camps, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn would write: 'Let the lie come into the world... but not through me. The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part of the lie.'
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'Silence in the face of evil is evil itself; God will not hold us guiltless.
Not to speak is to speak.
Not to act is to act.'
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-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
'Yes to Life in spite of Everything'
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Can anything good come from such horrible atrocities and suffering? We best turn to Holocaust survivors to find answers. Viktor E. Frankl (1905-1997), professor of neurology and psychiatry, was himself a Holocaust survivor. His parents and pregnant wife died in the death camps. Despite the horrors he saw and lived through, Frankl was convinced that what drives people more than anything else, and what kept him and others alive, was the quest for meaning in life. If only you find meaning and purpose, you will find strength to go on. If you can say, 'Yes to life in spite of everything' (as one of his books based on his post-war lectures is called), you can endure anything. Frankl followed the maxim of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who observed that 'whoever has a why to live can bear almost any how' (Yes to Life, 17). If you know your 'why' of existence, you can endure almost any 'how' of life and its challenges and even its sufferings.
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Frankl promoted a 'life-affirming credo,' as Daniel Goleman described it his introduction to Frankl's book. He relates how the professor drew some of his inspiration from a song the concentration camp inmates were forced to sing (3):
"... Whatever our future may hold: We still want to say 'yes' to life,
Because one day the time will come - Then we will be free!"
This attitude, so Goleman, was an attempt to 'finding grounds for a hopeful outlook despite it all.' Some Holocaust survivors would gather to celebrate life: 'They never forgot that life was a gift that the Nazi machine did not succeed in taking away from them,' determined, 'after all the hells they had endured, to say "Yes!" to life, in spite of everything' (2). Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning was 'a life-affirming response' to the horrors suffered (4). Such a response was, indeed, remarkable given the ugliness and extent of Nazi propaganda, that aimed at 'the very value of existence, asserting the worthlessness of life' for the likes of 'gypsies, gays, Jews, and political dissidents, among others' (5). Frankl was himself dehumanised and brutalised by it and he decried 'the negative propaganda that had destroyed any sense of meaning, human ethics, and the value of life' (6). As against all hateful propaganda of disinformation and lies by 'authoritarian rulers worldwide,' 'simple truths and basic human values need defending' (6-7). According to Frankl, Goleman points out, 'no one has the right to judge another person's life as meaningless, or to deem another as unworthy of the right to life' (8).
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Out of all of this, Frankl's 'life affirming credo,' was expressed in his 'logotherapy.' This is his 'main contribution to the world of psychotherapy.' Frankl's approach was treating 'psychological problems by helping people find meaning in their lives,' assisting them to 'seek a sense of purpose that life offers us' (9). This is more than 'happiness' or 'pleasure,' Frankl pointing out that 'even the dark and joyless episodes of our lives can be times when we mature and find meaning' (9-10). 'How we deal with the tough parts of our lives,' Goleman further explaining Frankl's approach, 'shows who we are.' This approach was part of the 'existential therapy,' helping people coping with 'suffering and dying' with 'a clear sense of purpose.' Goleman explains: 'If we can't change our fate, at least we can accept it, adapt, and possibly undergo inner growth even in the midst of troubles' (10). He sums up Frankl's approach to finding meaning in life in three ways: 'our lives take on meaning through action, through loving, and through suffering.' We are to do 'something that outlasts us,' appreciate 'nature, works of art, or simply loving people,' and learn how to adapt and react 'to unavoidable limits on their life possibilities.' Frankl was influenced by Danish theologian and philosopher Soren Kierkegaard in that 'the door to happiness always opens outward.' Fulfilling our 'unique life purpose' is ennobled by 'serving others.' The outworking of our life's purpose is seen in 'the ways we respond to life's realities.' The answer to the question of our life's meaning is found 'by how we respond to life' (10-11).
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The Great War (as the First World War was called) ushered in a 'nihilistic perception' of life, 'that the world itself lacked any substance.' But 'nihilistic existentialism' was a 'comfortless worldview.' Frankl sought to 'resurrect and sustain concepts like a noble meaning in life' to combat such a negative outlook on life. But the 'materialistic view' of life 'epitomises a meaningless life,' which really was 'devoid of any greater meaning or inner purpose,' according to Frankl. Degrading human dignity in an economic system where working classes are only 'a means to an end' was an 'insult to human dignity' (14-15). In waves of suicide, Frankl had developed 'a successful suicide prevention program' before he was sent to the concentration camps. For Frankl, 'suicide' was 'the height of meaninglessness,' never solving any problems or answering the questions being asked by life. Having a sense of purpose is not only better for our health, well-being and a long life, it also strengthens the will to live and survive, no matter what hell one had/has to endure. Real human freedom, Frankl observed in the death camps, are those whose minds remained free to dream and imagine despite the horrors of torture and constant threat of death (16-18).
The main lesson Frankl drew from his life's experiences before and during the Holocaust was that 'our perspective on life's events -- what we make of them -- matters as much or more than what actually befalls us. "Fate" is what happens to us beyond our control. But we each are responsible for how we relate to those events.' His experiences in the death camps deepened his convictions of the 'importance of a sense of meaning' in life (18). We should all try 'to help other people find their purpose' (19).
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"... Whatever our future may hold:
We still want to say 'yes' to life,
Because one day the time will come -
Then we will be free!"
Remarkable Responsibility
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Frankl's story is truly remarkable, even more so as he had the chance to emigrate from Nazi-occupied Austria to the USA. But he wouldn't leave his native Vienna, because he wanted to fulfil God's commandment to honour his parents and stay with them and care for and protect them! Here is the story in Frankl's own words (Search for Meaning, 13):
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'The reader may ask me why I did not try to escape what was in store for me after Hitler had occupied Austria. Let me answer by recalling the following story. Shortly before the United States entered World War II, I received an invitation to come to the American Consulate in Vienna to pick up my immigration visa. My old parents were overjoyed because they expected that I would soon be allowed to leave Austria. I suddenly hesitated, however. The question beset me: could I really afford to leave my parents alone to face their fate, to be sent, sooner or later, to a concentration camp, or even to a so-called extermination camp? Where did my responsibility lie? Should I foster my brain child, logotherapy, by emigrating to fertile soil where I could write my books? Or should I concentrate on my duties as a real child, the child of my parents who had to do whatever he could to protect them? I pondered the problem this way and that but could not arrive at a solution; this was the type of dilemma that made one wish for "a hint from Heaven," as the phrase goes.
It was then that I noticed a piece of marble lying on a table at home. When I asked my father about it, he explained that he had found it on the site where the National Socialists had burned down the largest Viennese synagogue. He had taken the piece home because it was a part of the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. One gilded Hebrew letter was engraved on the piece; my father explained that this letter stood for one of the Commandments. Eagerly I asked, "Which one is it?" He answered, "Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land." At that moment I decided to stay with my father and my mother upon the land, and to let the American visa lapse.'
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The Jews had been persecuted badly already, yet didn't know at the time the full extent of the Nazi extermination plans. Although Hitler had outlined his plans in Mein Kampf (My Struggle) already in1929, people didn't seem to take it seriously enough, not even Jews. They still believed they were a useful workforce to their Vaterland, Germany. Having died in the Great War (World War I) in German uniforms, Jews were an integral part of Germany. They were Germans first, Jews second. But soon Jews would suffer unspeakable cruelty, as Frankl himself also experienced, and then wrote about after his survival. He would not flee and abandon his parents. He, like others, would honour his parents in order 'to live long in the land,' and he did; he survived. But others didn't...
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"I had wanted simply to convey to the reader by way of a concrete example that life holds a potential meaning under any conditions, even the most miserable ones."
-Viktor E. Frankl
Frankl's Lectures of 1946
In Frankl's lectures in the Spring of 1946, less than a year after the end of the war, his opening remarks focused on the necessity to speak of 'the meaning and value of life' more than ever before. The question, however, after the horrors of the Holocaust, was how this was 'possible,' given the Nazi 'propaganda against any kind of meaning and against the value of existence itself,' the years of extermination having demonstrated 'the worthlessness of human life' (Yes to Life, 26). Following the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, 'that everything has its value, but man [human beings] has his dignity,' Frankl insisted that 'a human being should never become a means to an end.' Yet during the war, 'man and his life were now even made a means for death,' which is the pinnacle of the 'devaluation of life,' truly 'a debasement and degradation of humankind!' (25-27). Frankl rightly stated that after the horrors of the Holocaust, 'we know what human beings are capable of' (28). After 'all idealism has been so disappointed, and all enthusiasm so abused,' the youth, the young generation, 'no longer has any role models.' Despite of that Frankl advocated for the 'meaningfulness of life' and the belief 'in the meaning and value of human existence,' in order to overcome fatalism, scepticism and pessimism (28-29).
Neither was nihilism a way to live, Frankl calling for 'a new humanity.' After all, it all comes down to the individual human being: 'it is all a question of the individual human being,' which was all that remained anyway. Frankl gave the example of a Nazi SS camp commander who bought medicine for 'his' prisoners, while the camp elder, who was a prisoner himself, abused and mistreated his inmates! (30-31) Despite of the suffering, some adhered to the motto: 'Even more powerful than fate is the courage that bears it steadfastly.' Sadly, others could no longer bear it; Frankl witnessed a woman who had committed suicide under this powerful slogan. It was 'the minority' that displayed true being and could 'guarantee the continuing moral existence of the whole world.' It was 'the tremendous responsibility of the few' that mattered (32). The lessons learned were two:
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'everything depends on the individual human being, regardless of how small a number of like-minded people there are, and everything depends on each person, through action and not mere words, creatively making the meaning of life a reality in his or her own being' (32-33).
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Frankl called on individuals to be 'an advocate for meaning and value in life.' He spoke of that despair and its dangers that come from doubt about the meaningfulness of human existence (33). Since 'the average person experiences significantly more feelings of dissatisfaction than feelings of pleasure,' as a Russian experimental psychologist has demonstrated, 'it would not be possible to live only for pleasure' (35). For Frankl, life is much more than pleasure, for 'in itself [pleasure] cannot give our existence meaning,' and therefore 'the lack of pleasure cannot take away meaning from life' (36). In fact, it is the lack of a deep sense of meaning that makes people distract themselves with pleasure.
Duty is part of life and 'life is somehow duty.' Frankl quotes the poem of Rabindranath Tagore on the 'disappointments human beings feel towards their claim to happiness in life' (37):
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'I slept and dreamt that life was joy; I awoke and saw that life was duty. I worked - and behold, duty was joy.'
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Happiness is an outcome related to duty; happiness should not be a goal in life. Rather than asking, 'What can I expect from life?' one might ask, 'What does life expect of me?' Or, in other words, 'What task in life is waiting for me?' Finding the meaning of life has a lot to with asking the question about meaning the right way. Rather than we asking about the meaning of life, 'we are the ones who are questioned!' Life itself is asking the question, directing it at us -- we must give answers 'to the essential "life questions"' (38).
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'Living itself means nothing other than being questioned; our whole act of being is nothing more than responding to - of being responsible towards - life.'
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Even in seemingly hopeless situations, one might suddenly get a 'unique opportunity for acting in an exceptional way,' just like the black man sentenced to life in prison. On the way to the prison on Devil's Island by ship, he rescued ten people during a fire onboard ​-- and, after his good deeds, he was pardoned! (39) Did he have any meaning left in life while brought on the boat in shackles? But once a 'unique opportunity' came his way, he acted responsibly, and life suddenly gained meaning -- and the prisoner got a second chance at life. One must, according to Frankl, not worry about the future, but rather act responsibly in life and respond well to life in the present.
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“Thou shalt not be a victim, thou shalt not be a perpetrator, but, above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.” Yehuda Bauer
Never Again
After the world had learned about the horrors and extent of the Holocaust against Jews and others, the slogan 'Never Again' sought to prevent any such genocide to happen to any people ever again. Jews were active in fighting racial prejudice and genocidal ideology all over the world. Although the dream of a Jewish homeland where Jews could be safe, rule and defend themselves, was an old idea, with the official creation of the Jewish State of Israel, the Jews would seek to realise that dream of living in safety. The Holocaust should never happen again - to no one!
Yehuda Bauer was right: we are not to be victims or perpetrators, and certainly never to be bystanders. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel stated it well:
'Always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.'
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-Elie Wiesel
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Not taking sides in the face of evil is encouraging the tormentor. Winston Churchill had the courage to oppose British appeasement policy towards Nazi Germany as well as to do what was necessary in those horrible days: fight evil until it is defeated.
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Sources, References
Abba Eban and David Bamberger, My People: Abba Eban's History of the Jews. Volume II. New York: Behrman House, 1979
Edward H. Flannery, The Anguish of the Jews. Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism. Mahwah, NJ: Pauli's Press, 1985
Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy. London: Fontana Press, 1986
Martin Gilbert, Churchill and the Jews. London: Simon & Schuster, 2007
Howard M. Sachar. A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to our Time (2n Ed). New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996 (2001)
Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews. New York: Harper & Row, 1987
Viktor E. Frankl, Yes to Life in spite of Everything. London: Rider, 2019
Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning. London: Rider, 2004
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