Featured High School Student Author
Eden, USA
Recently, school has been miserable. I am constantly harassed by my peers. They call me names and say terrible things about my family. I have even been hit on the playground a few times now. Last week a group of boys came up to me, shoved me onto the ground and started calling me the worst sort of names. All of this was done right in front of my teacher, who didn’t even do anything to stop it. He just walked away. They used to try and hide it, but now they don’t even care, and it seems as though everyone has turned against me.
I can’t even feel safe walking to and from school anymore. Yesterday morning I was walking to school as usual, and three kids started throwing rocks at me. I have tried to tell my mother that I don’t want to go to school anymore. I would rather stay home and help my father with the family business, but she says I must endure it. She says if I don’t go to school people will think I’m lazy. Today I walked a mile out of my way so I wouldn’t come across those boys again, and I didn’t have any trouble. But I know it’s only a matter of time before something even worse happens. I have never done anything wrong to these people. I have never done anything to hurt anyone, but they hate me. They have no reason to hate me. It’s simply because I’m a Jew.
For many young Jewish boys and girls in HitlerGermany, this was a daily reality. They were openly mistreated on the streets, on the playground, and in the classroom. These were the events that led up to the mass killings of the Holocaust, and they happened just because one person decided to spread hate for the Jewish people. Throughout history, people have always been mistreated just for being different. In the case of the Holocaust, some Jewish people had darker hair and eyes and an olive complexion, which set them apart.
In many ways, the Holocaust is an extreme example of the bullying that goes on today. Now people are bullied for the same reason. They are bullied because they look differently, or think differently, or maybe even just dress differently. And people bully for the same reasons too. Hitler wanted power, and he needed someone to blame for all the bad things that had happened in his life. Now people bully so that they can feel like they have power over someone too, and maybe they are eve n in pain too, and just are trying to cover it up. The affect is also the same. Bullies try to alienate their victims to hurt them and break down their self esteem, which is exactly what Hitler tried to do with the Jews.
During the Holocaust, it was very rare for someone to try to stop the mistreatment that the Jews faced, or to stand up and say that what people were doing was wrong. People were scared of what the consequences would be if they tried to deny what Hitler said was right. This also happens today on a much smaller scale. It is rare for people to stand up against the bully for the fear of what people would think, or maybe what the bully would do. What people don’t realize is that it just takes one kind person to make a person feel better about themselves, and it can only take one mean comment to be the breaking point to someone. There are stories of Holocaust survivors who said that the kindness of one person kept them going.
No one can say now if the Holocaust could have been prevented or not, but had more people spoken up about the injustices being done, it could have definitely made a difference. But the only thing we can do now is stand up to modern day bullies and not let any more children be hurt just because they’re different. The Holocaust was a tragic event that will never be forgotten, and something that should never be allowed to be repeated.
