Inhuman Massacres

Now a day we hear about the horrific massacres that are taking place all over the world, and no one seems trying to give a help in hand. These inhuman acts need to be stopped or the consequence will be dire on humanity. But are these horrific massacres new to our history? The answer is absolutely no; by looking back in history we will find numerous of heinous massacres, like the massacre of Siege of Baghdad which was done by Khanate Mongol forces led by Halagu Khan, where more than 800,000 individuals were killed. Also in the last century many terrible massacred had happened in Vietnam, and the casualties of it were 1.1 billion individuals. In addition, more than 229,000 civilians were killed in Bosnia war in the nineties of the last century.
However, the last few years in Syria were loaded with tremendous war crimes in daily bases, and if we don’t stand together side by side to stop it; it will inevitably become a new version of the Holocaust. Which is the worst crime in recorded history. In the forties of the last century the world was suffering from the scourge of world war II.
And World War II is a devastating international armed conflict that lasted from September,2,1939 until September,2, 1945. This war is considered to be the most expensive war in the history because of the number of countries that were involved and the spread of the war. More than 100 million soldiers attended this war and 60 million individuals have been killed -This was approximately 2.5% of the world population at that time-. During the World War II, countries split into two groups; Allies and Axis powers. The Allies power were led by Great Britain, Belgium, Netherland and France. Meanwhile, the Axis power were under the command of Nazi Germany and the kingdom of Italy. However, France which was a member of the Allies power fell in July, 14 1940 under the German occupation when they were defeated in the battle of France. This defeat was a plague for the Jews who were a minority in France. Jewish population in France at that time was 300,000 people. They were only 0.06% of the overall population of France. Half of them came in exile from Germany in 1933; the same year that Nazis took over Germany. In addition, more than 66% of Jews population in France used to live in Pairs, the same city that Sarah’s key novel took place in. Sarah’s Key is a heart breaking story of young Jewish girl who lived in Paris and her struggles during the
Holocaust. The Nazi occupation of France made Jews in France Holocaust victims. And the Holocaust is a Greek word made of two parts, Holo which means (whole) and Kaustos which means (barned). But this term is usually used to describe the heinous massacres that were done by the Nazis and their accomplices (E.g. France police, page 28 and 43 from the novel) against more than 6 million of Jews, during the World War II. These massacres took place in Germany and some countries that were under the Nazi rulings (E.g. Poland, Austria, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Netherland and France). But how did all this start? In the early twentieth of the last century, some voices have emerged in Germany calling to legalize and encourage euthanasia for disabled people and those who have incurable disease and saying that Aryan race is the finest human race. These voices did not call for extermination of any other race or religious group, but historians say that Nazis used these ideas to justify their plan to exterminate Jews and some other groups. In April,1,1933 Nazis started harassing Jews. On that day the Nazi party called Germans to boycott Jews and not to deal with them. German soldiers started to draw the Star of David on Jews houses and posted anti-Semitism posters on their stores. However, that night went by peacefully and there wasn’t any mentionable violence. A couple of peaceful nights have passed by until the German authorities took away Jews nationalities and franchises (aka voting rights). November 9th 1938 was the beginning of the Holocaust, large number of Germans supported by the police destroyed thousands of Jews shops, set fires in more than one thousand of Synagogues (Jewish temples), killed 100 and arrested 30,000 German Jews. This night was refereed to as Reich Kristallnacht-aka the night of Broken Glass. And this was the start of the Holocaust in Germany. One year later, World War II has begun, and Germany began to expand putting more and more countries under its ruling, one of these countries being France. In France, during the Nazi occupation, French Jews were suffering from the aggressive actions of their government and they were exposed to many roundups.
The most popular roundup was Vel ’d’Hiv roundup, which happened between July 16 and 17 1942. The targeted victims were non-French Jews in Paris. This roundup is different from other roundups in terms of the people who were targeted. In the other roundups “only men were in danger, not women and children” as Sarah’s father thought. According Tatiana De Rosnay “More than “13,152 individuals were arrested in Paris and suburbs; 4115 children; 1129 men and; 2916 women”. However, the most surprising thing about this operation is its code name, Spring Breeze. But the real name of this operation as mentioned in historical resource is Vel ‘d’Hiv roundup, which was named after the place the victims were locked up; Velodroum stadium. The stadium was originally used for Olympic sports alongside with some other games like boxing and ice hockey. The stadium was located in the 15th arrondissement Pairs near the Eiffel tower and Sein river, which means that the roundup took place in a residential area and not somewhere hidden from citizens’ sight. This makes French citizens who saw this and didn’t do anything about it part of this operation. But were they all the
same? As any other historical event, the French can be divided into many groups based on how they reacted to the roundup. The first group of French were those who helped the French police to trace those Jews who runaway. A good example of this group in Sarah’s Key novel would be Sarah’s family concierge who tried to hand Sarah’s father over to the police. The second type of French were the people who were feeling sorry for those victim but they were involved in this operation involuntarily. For example, the solider who helped Sarah to escape. The Third types of people were those who didn’t do anything about the roundup and who were unaware of what was happening until the World War II was over, or after they met the survivors. Just like the Tezac family who moved to their new apartment without knowing for sure who it belong to before. The last group is consisting of those who helped the victims even though their lives were threatened, and that is exactly what the old couple did in this story.
In conclusion, we can say that those types of people did not know that they were going to be mentioned in history. If they knew about that, probably they would all have been done what the old couple did. Today we are in the same position as they were; our actions, words or even silence are being recorded. No wonder if our attitudes towards the massacres -in Syria, Palestine, Myanmar etc.- are being mentioned in historical resources after a few years. At that moment we will either be a source of pride or shame to our grandchildren. Indeed, the Holocaust is a huge black spot in the history of mankind, but our mission is to prevent new spots from forming.