Konin, Poland
During the bus ride here we watched a two part movie entitled "Hitler: The Rise of Evil." It told of Hitler's personal and political history leading up to 1934. The last bits of the movie then listed the rest of the events leading up to the outbreak of the war and the crimes against humanity that he committed until his suicide. The acting was superb and the movie really gave me an insight into the monster who orchestrated the horrifying events of the Holocaust and how he came to power. One quote appeared on the screen both before and after the movie. It read, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." This is a quote I am very familiar with but I felt a troubling aspect to it. In the movie, and man named Fritz worked tirelessly to expose Hitler as the maniac he was. Fritz was a writer, and used all of the tools as his disposal to be the voice of reason and truth until he was murdered in Dachau. He was a good man who tried to do something, but in the end his efforts were fruitless. Fritz's failure contradicts the words of the quote, for a good man did try to do some thing! The answer to this paradox is not a satisfying one, but was the only one that made some sort of sense to me. Good MEN (and women) must take action, and a single voice was not enough to overpower the Nazis or their ruthless leader. This goes against everything I've ever learned, for my mentors have always said one voice can change everything. I expected Poland to be a difficult experience, but I can't deal with these unanswerable questions.
No comments:
Post a Comment