What I Realized About Democracy By Going to the Holocaust Museum

In my last blog post, I posited that for the west to defeat the Islamic State in the hearts and minds of the world citizenry, it must show that being part of western democratic society has a real moral value. My view is even more solidified this weekend after going to the Holocaust Museum and viewing the exhibit "Collaboration and Complicity During the Holocaust."

A viewing of that exhibit will direct one's mind to various moral challenges faced by German and Polish citizens during the time of the Nazi power.  Is it morally acceptable to hold one's to withhold your tongue when government officials appear to be engaging in injustice on the presumption that the government is doing what's right?  Is it right or wrong to cooperate with government officials in their efforts to round up individuals due to their racial or religious identification?  Furthermore, is there ever a case that failing to act is tantamount to endorsing an evil program?

Thus, the core of the exhibit is the stories of those individual Germans and Poles who bravely hid Jews, chose against supporting the regime, and those who were not brave enough to take the heroic step.

In some ways, these questions are easy to discus when studying history. After all, when we in the twenty-first century examine the Holocaust, we are studying a series of events that occurred seventy-five to eighty years ago.  Thus, as we are not faced with the situation, we can easily say, "if I were in that situation, I would do x; if I were in this situation, I would do y."  For sure it is a genuine question, but it is theoretical.  Or is it?

Every news story I read about the Islamic State brings me back to what I know about Hitler's regime. I venture to guess that many of the the subjects of the Islamic State (it wouldn't be right to use the word citizen) are faced with the dilemmas brought to our attention by this exhibit.

As Americans, we sometimes feel divorced from those problems. Our ability to save Jewish Germans then or Iraqis and Syrians now is very limited.  The individual American's role in saving individuals Jews or individual Yazidis and other Iraqis Syrians.

American are never truly divorced from the horrors of the successors of Nazi ideology. This nation has a very powerful military.  As citizens, we have the ability to impact what our government does with the military.

However, the exhibit also demonstrates something else about collaboration with evil courses of action. In society, there are always individuals who seek to bully who seek recognition or power. Like the Nazi's, they often find "the weakest link," attack them, and force members of a group to demonstrate their loyalty to the bully rather than to the individual being bullied.  This does not only happen in third world dictatorships, but happens all over America.  Great numbers of teenagers have killed themselves or attempted to kill themselves as a result of intense bullying.   I believe there are also numerous adults who find themselves requiring medical and psychological assistance as a result of workplace bullying.

The sign of a democracy is a place where individuals can act on his or her own beliefs without harming others or being harmed.  An essential aspect of a true democracy in my opinion is a place where someone's beliefs and views and looks are not limitations in his or her ability to function in society.

The purpose of this essay is not really to advocate for idealism, which is impractical. It is to reflect on the point that we are collaborators when we acknowledge and support mean and cruel behavior, whether or not that behavior stems from the government or our fellow citizen.