The Terrible Reasons People Accepted Concentration Camps
Americans can learn from German history and turn away from doom & gloom.
In its heyday, Germany was a global military superpower with a booming economy, numerous inventions, world-class infrastructure, and prize-winning scientific accomplishments. When its fortune turned for the worse in the first half of the 20th century, a combination of economic malaise and hubris made its people blind to the core failures it had allowed to accumulate within its borders.
The tired German people allowed the unthinkable and the treacherous to happen, and as a result, over 75 million people died in World War II from disease, famine, imprisonment, and conventional warfare. Bystanders stood by quietly, expecting someone else to solve their problems.
People used terrible justifications to allow their neighbors to be sent to concentration camps and to accept slave labor on home soil.
“Quarantine the epidemic” | Most Germans forgot they had strong immune systems that are biologically equipped to ward off deadly diseases with the help of proper nutrition. Eat and heal yourself like a pro athlete if you want to protect yourself against Coronavirus strains and bioterrorist threats.
“Remove criminals and critics” | Politics can be a giant deadly game of whack-a-mole as our rulers constantly try to whack the person who sticks his head up high too quickly. If everyone sticks their head up slowly but surely for honor, the rulers doing the whacking are given a break since nobody’s popping their head up above the rest. By the time they notice, the round is already over and there’s newfound respect between the rulers and the team players. Then it’s time to move onto a better game.
“Prison labor is free” | Smart people were misled into believing “work makes you free.”
“Earth is overpopulated” | The ancient cultures that practiced bloody human sacrifices and cannibalism thought the planet was overpopulated too. Are you interested in living in a civilization like theirs?
“It’s not my problem” | It’s not your problem until it is. And then you will wish your neighbors and your community would come to your aid.
In the years leading up to World War II, Germany’s democracy was failing after a prolonged economic recession despite powerful rhetoric from politicians, and many people expected their new government leader to save them. They wanted a simple fix for a complex problem. Others just accepted things the way they were without pushing back. They became accustomed and de-sensitized to a worsening situation, like lobsters in a boiling pot, and they underestimated their own personal power to speak up and challenge corrupt laws and corporate policies in their own private business, academia, healthcare, and government bureaucracies.
Complain less and solve more. Make yourself a part of the solutions to bring about Big Peace. Try thinking about a problem from a new perspective.
Although tensions are high, another catastrophic world war is avoidable. If a man complains that he is sick, tired, or not paid enough, that is fair. But when his neighbors come along to show him a better path, and he continually ignores them, then he is just as blind as those about whom he complains.
Every act of honor counts, so give your community a chance to create rather than destroy. What steps will you take in the next week?
Spread the word! Like, share, and leave a comment. Photo by Majkl Velner on Unsplash.