Ordinary People #HMD

Over the years I have written various posts about Holocaust Memorial Day. The significance of the day, the victims, how important that the atrocities of the past do not find their way into the future. I am however insignificant, unimportant, with little status… in short, I am ordinary. The world is made up of ordinary people like me, maybe like you? It is unlikely that I will ever do anything extra-ordinary or earth shattering within my lifetime, but who knows what tomorrow might bring.

Life though ordinary is relatively safe, steady, for me in the United Kingdom. I go about my daily life having very little impact on anything, and I imagine it was the same for those 17 million victims (this includes 6 million Jews) of the Holocaust in the 1930’s. I have often wondered when the point was that they realised their lives were about to change. How long before the march to the death camps did they know, their was something different about them? They were no longer just ordinary. Their ordinary lives were turned completely upside down.

It is a common mistake to assume that Hitlers persecution of those unacceptable to him coincided with the start of World War 2. That somehow, due to the war taking place no one in Europe noticed what was happening, sadly, this is not the case. Ordinary people, like you and me, saw what was happening and most of them did nothing. They observed their neighbours, friends, local shop owners, children, people, fellow ordinary humans that they saw everyday, humilated and forced to live as outcasts from society. What did they do? Nothing. Sure, what could they do? Stand up against the Nazi’s and end up being persecuted themselves. Most humans, though we like to feel we wouldn’t, choose self preservation over endangering our lives for others.

In the past I have read numerous stories of those who survived the Holocaust. Most of these stories of survival were of children who escaped due to the acts of ordinary people, because sometimes, ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

Oskar Schindler, was one of these ordinary people. A German businessman who risked his life to save the lives of his workers. He saved 1,200 Jews and his life has been immortalised in the Spielberg movie, Schindlers List. I admit I have never watched the movie, but I have read accounts of those who survived because of his act of heroism.

Another ordinary person, Eduard Schulte, was the first person to inform the allies of Hitlers, extermination of Jews in Germany. As I mentioned before it was widely known in Europe that Hitler was doing something, but Eduard spoke out. As he often travelled to and liaised with the government of Germany, he had first hand information of what was occurring and used his voice, his contacts, to make the world aware of Hitlers plan called the Final Solution. If you have never heard of the Final Solution, this was Hitlers plan to destroy not only the Jews but anyone who did not conform to the Nazi idealogy.

They are just two of the many individuals who risked their own lives to save the lives of many. I am not judging but maybe, if there had been a few more ordinary people, who spoke out, who had the opportunity to help and acted upon it, maybe that number – 17,000,000 est. might have been lower. Unfortunately, we cannot go back in time and rectify the mistakes of the past, but we might be able to make the future a better and safer place for those who are persecuted, by standing against injustice no matter where it might present itself.