Deciphering mass murders - I

When I went to Germany, I tried to read and know about the Economic, Social and Political conditions and situations there. Since I couldn’t quite read the newspapers there as most of them were in German (except International Herald Tribune) so I had to rely on local people whom I met there for getting answers to my queries.

I’ve to admit that my knowledge of History is rather poor. I don’t even know much about India’s history as History is one of most poorly designed course in educational curriculum in India, thus, to expect me to know much about Germany’s History would have been asking too much. But whatever might be one’s History’s level, one would have known that World Wars happened and Germany was a major player in both. So, for an unitiated observer like me, it boiled down to discussing Hitler.

Why Hitler got so much support? How come holocaust happened and millions of Jews were killed. Wasn’t there any opposition inside Germany? Any revolution to out throw Hitler?

Since these were sensitive questions, I was shy asking them from my German colleagues. Even my Indian colleagues at my company advised me not to discuss Second World War with Germans, but then after few weeks, from my reading on Germany’s educational system, I was convinced that I could ask such questions. In Germany, there is a lot of guilt attached with Second World War due to holocaust, and therefore there is a lot of stress on teaching History and discussing it openly among students so as to bring out the prejudices and do away with them.

I met a German engineering graduate during my trip to Hamburg and I asked him about the usual associations in with Second World War. I guess, He was around 25-30 years old. He told me that around 1970s, there was a huge debate in Germany over this issue, that how could such a thing have happened in this country. Millions of Jews were killed and nobody opposed. The younger generation alleged it on the older generation that why shouldn’t they be held guilty of supporting Hitler and Jewish murders. The older generation, though feeling somewhat guilty, retorted by saying that the times of 1930s were not like today. Then, the media wasn’t as free and all-pervasive as it is today. Free and unbiased information was hard to come by. The ordinary Germans could only rely on the central leadership for getting information which was masterminded by Hitler and co.

I asked the same question to one of my fellow German colleagues at office. I told him the above story also. He was around 50 years old and had two children and had a different perspective from the younger guy whom I met earlier. He told me that during 1930s, in the after years of Great Depression, the lives of ordinary fold were quite wretched. The defeat in First World War and afterwards, heavy penalties extracted by the victors resulted in extreme poverty in Germany. In such times, Hitler emerged as a strong leader who wanted to take Germany to its glorious place of good olden days. He started rebuilding of Germany, reduced corruption in those times of chaos, gave jobs to youth by involving them in constructions of Autobahns (Highways), bridges etc. The ordinary folks were led to believe that Hitler is their saviour.

On question regarding the absence of strong media and twisted information, He said that he had heard these arguments but didn’t fully believe them. He couldn’t believe that a mass murder of this scale was happening and nobody had a whiff. In fact, His own father was a soldier in the War and his father told him that He had seen few trains during the War carrying people inside them. But he never knew what these trains were for and where these people were being carried to. Anyways, during War, one is too much preoccupied with battles and fighting and concentrating on other things becomes difficult for a soldier.

From these two discussions, I reached the conclusion that Democracy and Free Media could have averted such a tragic disaster. Alas! If only things were only so simple.

Going by above logic, such incidents shouldn’t occur in today’s World in countries like India, US, and major European countries. But is today’s World perfect? I would try to discuss this in my next post.