Educate yourself about history's worst form of bigotry through some of the finest cinematic productions.

Why I thought it was important to talk about history’s worst genocide, is for you to understand how one particular community was demonized under a fascist regime, an environment of hostility and indifference was created towards them.

Around six million Jewish people in Europe were killed during the Holocaust, yet a survey found that 11% of Americans and 22% of Millennials, hadn't even heard of the Holocaust or weren't sure they had. The survey's respondents also indicated anti-Semitism and neo-Nazi remain issues today, with more than half saying they believe there are many neo-Nazis in the USA.

It is important for you to know about it so you are able to spot the signs early on, the next time you see history repeat itself and this time since we’re so ‘woke’, I’m hoping we won’t just be passive by standers.

What is Anti – Semitism & its Origins:

Anti-Semitism is the belief or behavior hostile toward Jews just because they are Jewish.

Hostility toward Jews dates to ancient times, perhaps to the beginning of Jewish history. The rise of Christianity greatly increased hatred of Jews. They became seen as a people who rejected Jesus and crucified him — despite the fact that the Roman authorities ordered and carried out the crucifixion. Despite the fact that Jesus himself was a Jew. In the 11th-14th centuries, Jews were widely persecuted labeled as "Christ-killers" and "Devils."

Forced to live in all-Jewish ghettos, they were accused of poisoning rivers and wells during times of disease.

Some were tortured and executed for supposedly abducting and killing Christian children to drink their blood or to use it in baking matzoh — a charge known as the "blood libel." – All Rumors –

  A large number were forced to convert to Christianity to avoid death, torture, or expulsion.

In recent times, the Catholic church and other Christian churches have rejected these anti-Semitic falsehoods.

In the 18th century, Judaism was attacked as an outdated belief that blocked human progress.

19^th Century & The Holocaust:

In the 19^th century, religion played a less important role. It was replaced by theories about the differences between races and peoples. The idea that Jews were different than the Germans, for instance, caught on. Even Jews who had converted to Christianity were still 'different' because of their bloodline.

While the rise to power of the Nazis in the 1920s and 1930s involved views about inborn superiority of "Aryans," or whites; belief that Jews destroyed societies; that Jews secretly worked together to gain control of the world; and that Jews already controlled world finance, business, media, entertainment, and Communism.

The Holocaust, a systematic mass extermination between 1939-1945 resulted in the death of six million Jews — more than a third of the world's Jewish population, The murders were carried out in pogroms and mass shootings; by a policy of extermination through work in concentration camps; and in gas chambers and gas vans in German extermination camps.

A giant pile of 1,10,000 shoes were  left behind by the camp's victims that are preserved by the Auschwitz-Birkenau foundation, whose inventory also comprises 3,800 suitcases; more than 88 pounds of eyeglasses; 379 striped uniforms; 246 prayer shawls, and more than 12,000 pots and pans brought to the camp;

 by victims who believed they would eventually be resettled.

Of course, a basic history lesson in High School would have you know about the rise of Hitler and how he compared the Jews to germs. He stated that, ‘diseases cannot be controlled unless you destroy their causes. The influence of the Jews would never disappear without removing its cause, the Jew, from our midst’ he said. These radical ideas paved the way for the mass murder of the Jews in the 1940s. The origin of Hitler's hatred of Jews is not clear, it is often speculated.

However, I’ve believed that when you watch documentaries and movies that literally depict what happened back then, with the help of real life accounts taken from the survivors, it becomes so much clearer. It shows how hate has no end and how its only love thet aids in achieving a happy ending. It helps you understand the pain and suffering a community went through, the commoners; people like you and I, from good homes, with good education and what they went through with no fault of theirs. It imbues in your minds the quality to empathize with them, an emotion that is slowly fading out of people’s systems.

P.S. Sit with a box of tissues, because the agony will get to even the stone hearted.

The Pianist:

The movie released in 2002 is based on the autobiographical book The Pianist,

 published in 1946,  a Holocaust memoir by 
the Polish-Jewish pianist and composer
 Władysław Szpilman 

It is a biographical war film. It has won several awards, including the Academy Awards and BAFTAs.World War II is one of the most frightening wars in history and movie is a must watch, otherwise how else will we learn from our mistakes? The Pianist is a beautiful and extremely dark tale about a man, who’s lost his family and is now all by himself, hated in his country because he’s a Jew; in hiding, his struggle to survive and how music is what keeps him sane. 

 The ending is so powerful and moving to know that sometimes one man can make a difference in a crowd of so many. 

 Even as I write this, I get goosebumps and tears make my vision blurred.

In watching this film one can only shudder at the thought of other conflicts that are currently brewing in front of our eyes, around the world. 

 We wonder if the leaders could be made to sit through a showing of The Pianist to make them realize that war is completely unnecessary and hate only brews more hate.

Schildler’s List:

Schindler's List is a 1993 American historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg. It is based on the 1982 novel Schindler's Ark  Australian novelist Thomas Keneally. It depicts the gory details of Nazi concentration camps.You should not just watch is because it won an academy award for the best motion picture, but because; amidst the darkness, the movie shows that hearts can change, that there is always scope for humanity and that goodness exists. The lead character; a Nazi supporter, is a flawed man, he has the desire to be a millionaire and how by the end of the war, he risks his life and spends his fortune to save as many Jews as he could.

At the end of the film, there is a sequence of overwhelming emotional impact, involving the actual people who were saved by Schindler. We learn that "Schindler's Jews" and their descendants today number about 6,000.

Jojo Rabbit:

Jojo Rabbit is a 2019 American comedy-drama
 film based on Christine Leunens's 2008 book
 Caging Skies.
Jojo is an innocent boy who has been heavily 
indoctrinated with the Nazi ideals 
and is a member of Hitler Youth. 
He has an imaginary friend who is none other
 than Adolf himself.
He finds out one day that his mother 
is hiding a Jewish girl in their attic,
who doesn’t look anything at all like how
 Jews were according to the officers in the
 Hitler Youth Camp for kids.
His mother has been shown to be a member
 of the resistance and is later publicly hanged. 
The scene where little Jojo 
unknowingly wandering the street,
 discovers her in that state; tears one up. 
He  then question his beliefs about
 the Jews he questions his blind nationalism
 while WW2 rages on.
From a child’s perspective, 
we see how easy it is to be brainwashed 
by an authoritative figure, 
which is a very relevant topic today. 
The movie will make you laugh, 
it’ll make you cry and more importantly 
it’ll teach you to love.

The
boy in the striped pajamas:



The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is based on
 the 2006 Holocaust novel by 
Irish novelist John Boyne. 
The movie will make and break your faith 
in humanity at the same time. 
It begins with a sweet,
 innocent friendship between the 
Nazi Commandant's son Bruno and Shmuel;
who is an inmate at the 
German concentration camp in neighborhood.
One could say that this movie was 
'Heartbreaking'. 
There will be so many moments when
 you would want to just give up and
not continue, but keep watching.
 The harsh realities of the German prison 
camps
synthesized with the pure relationship of the
 two kids from two different worlds,
 is something you can't move past from. 
The twist towards the ending will literally
 tear you apart, 
I literally am finding it hard to type
 write now.
What people must have gone through
 back then is unfathomable.
 We can only be
grateful to be born in a post Nazi era.
 We can only hope something like the
Holocaust never, ever happens again.

School
Ties


School Ties is a 1992 American sports-drama
 film which did not get much

critical appraisal, 
but I’d say it is light watch that
 gives you an insight

into the lives of people who are singled 
out on the basis of their religion,

which is a very private matter, honestly. 
The movie is about a boy who is awarded
 an athletic scholarship to an elite

preparatory school in his senior year; 
in the 1950's and has to hide his

religion, as he is a Jew and has to keep 
this a secret from his friends for

fear of being rejected. 
He’s a great quarterback and a real gentleman. When one

of his ‘so called friend’ comes to know that
 he is a Jew,it wrecks havoc into

next brings forth the harsh realities of 
life that how young, meritorious

his life at his hostel,
 but he stands up to his bullies. 
The twist that happens

children too have been brainwashed into 
hating a community without even being

close and upfront with them.

Watch it not just for the gorgeous
 90’s heartthrobs, 
but for the cause that the movie tries
to address.



The Denial:

Denial is a 2016 British-American biographical
courtroom drama film based on Deborah
Lipstadt's 2005 book History on
Trial: My Day in Court with
 a Holocaust Denier. It dramatizes
the Irving v Penguin Books Ltd case, 
in which Lipstadt, a Holocaust scholar,
 was sued by Holocaust
denier David Irving for libel.
 It received mixed reviews but it makes
 an interesting
watch, simply because it talks about how
 history can be distorted if you are
not careful enough.

Yes, ‘Holocaust Deniers’ 
do exist.
 Seventy Six years after the 
liberation of Auschwitz, 
two-thirds of
the world's population 
doesn’t know the 
Holocaust happened—
or they deny it.

These words ring in my ears,
 ‘If we deny history it will be repeated.’

_____________________________________________________________________

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/04/12/holocaust-remembrance-day-americans-forgetting/511320002/

https://www.adl.org/anti-semitism

https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/go-in-depth/why-did-hitler-hate-jews/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial_(2016_film)

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/05/the-world-is-full-of-holocaust-deniers/370870/

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/schindlers-list-1993

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_Ties

 https://www.history.com/news/auschwitz-concentration-camp-numbers

the images are taken from Google.com