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Blog Post #5 - Ellie

Studying the Holocaust has changed my view on the world forever. Before studying this horrific time in history, I viewed the Holocaust as something that happened long ago, or something that was so inhumane that I almost thought of it as fiction. As Elie Wiesel stated in his Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, “This is the twentieth century, not the Middle Ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed?” Seeing the horrors in detail at the Holocaust Museum and learning about the Holocaust in class has taught me that we must help others that are in situations similar to the Holocaust, because we cannot let history repeat itself. Before studying this unit, I had no idea that so many people were suffering worldwide and so many genocides have occurred/are occurring even today. What baffles me the most is that we have done nothing to help these people. We have barely even given them a voice to use, let alone attempted to free them from their tormentors. We are the Free Nation, yet we sit back and watch so many others have their freedom ripped right from under them. We have so many resources that we could use to help, yet we have done nothing. Being one of the wealthiest and most desired (to live in)/successful nations comes with the duty to help others in need, but we are not carrying that out. We are silencing them and ignoring the fact that there are millions of people in dire situations who need our help. We take our wonderful and privileged life for granted, and we need to wake up as a country and realize that people like the Yazidis deserve our help. My final takeaway from this unit is that life really is a beautiful and precious thing, and that we have the opportunity to help these people who are suffering all around the globe, and we need to take it.
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