How can humans be so cruel?

Question

I just finished watching "The Grey Zone", a movie about the Holocaust and reading a summary of "The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews 1939-1945" and can not, for the life of me, understand the cruelty behind this historical event.

Answer 1

People chose to be good or bad; we all have the ability to be mean and cruel- and it all comes down to choice.
~

Answer 2

Humans have a long history of being cruel to other humans.
The Holocaust and the extermination of the Jews from 1939 - 1945 is only one example. Although, it is proper to take into account the words of Richard J. Evans, from his review of 'The Years of Extermination" - "... the book's focus on the suffering of the Jews pushes the broader context of Nazi racial policy -- which includes the mass murder of millions of Soviet prisoners of war, the systematic extermination of the Polish intelligentsia, the killing of about 200,000 mentally ill or handicapped Germans, the annihilation of a large part of Europe's Gypsies -- possibly too far into the background."

Answer 3

Most times when an ethnic group - not race as we are all human= one race- is being attack is due to the fact that one individual has a thought that their appearance is more superior to another. This goes back many centuries and in many cultures. One of the most known ones is Nazi Germany against the Jews. The latest one in Canada was the Eugenics movement - from the 1940 and 50 right up to the 1980's. This time the target group was individuals who had disabilities and those who were natives. Sad world we live in. Often these forms of abuse are based on Darwinism - survival of the fittest. Look it up it's a fascinating theory that has been used in the most negative way.

Answer 4

The cruelty behind the holocaust is very difficult to understand, but there are factors that contributed to it. The German people of the time were brought up with a mythology of heroes and racial purity called the "Volkish Ideology". Think of the music of Wagner. The heroes of their fairy tales were tall and blond and "pure".
Jewish people in Europe were, among other things, historically the moneylenders and shopkeepers. They were the educated and often the only wealthy people outside of royalty.
That meant that when the German economy went bad mainly because of reparations Germany had to pay after WWI, the only prosperous people were the Jewish people. These same people held the debt of the neighborhood folks who needed credit to survive when German money was worth as much as wallpaper in the privy as in your pocket.
This caused a great deal of fear and resentment so that when a person like Hitler started to jump up on beer barrels in crowds of people, it was easy to convince them that the Jews were the root of their problems. Think of the anti-American sentiments you hear all the time that inspire people to terrorism.
This doesn't excuse what happened. But we need to understand the things that can contribute so that it doesn't ever happen again. As hard as it is, we need to keep trying to remedy the inequities of the world and learn religious and culteral tolerance before people like Hitler and Osama bin Laden can take advantage of them.

Answer 5

I'm trying to become a self-educated Holocaust scholar. From the Auschwitz twins to Wladyslaw Szpilman's survival, Rena's promise, Jean Kippelstein's capture, to the Jews in New York, by Chaim Potok, who heard of their relatives' murderers. I'm trying to absorb all I can. For what reason, I'm not sure yet.

But I do know that learning about these events and also those like them (never forget the Armenian genocide during WWI! Don't turn a blind eye to Darfur today!) will help people to not repeat them. If you are educated, if you know the facts and impacts, perhaps we can turn the future more peaceful. Perhaps we can practice the religious/ethnic/racial coexistance we preach?

Answer 6

The Holocaust was a deliberately orchestrated form of cannibalism conducted by power-mongols and plunderers, harkening for their advantage a savage, ancient instinct among those of us with lesser strength of conscience, the feeble-minded and feeble-souled . . . the coward. In J. R. R. Tolkien's triology "The Lord of the Rings", in the second book, "The Fellowship of the Ring", in the bowels of the earth at the bridge of Khazad-dum, there is an evil monster awakened . . .a Balrog . . . a creature of fire and doom for all, good and bad. The Balrog represents that savage instinct within us called fascism.

Fascism is a terrible disease that is on the rise in the world again today, fanned by many of the same power-mongering families, including Bush's, that orchestrated and supported the awakening of the Balrog prior to WWII. Fascism uses "divide and conquer" strategies to control social behaviors and to create storms of instability and easily manipulated people full of primitive hatred, based on unsubstantial accusations made against an unsubstantial, made-up enemy.

The disease of polarization hails from and appeals to a lower level of mental and spiritual development. Racism, sexism, ageism, and other such polarizations originated in primitive, savage pack behaviors. Intolerance is created or fanned, and violence is advocated and used to divide and conquer. Polarization creates "sides" for the purpose of arbitrary comparison and the creation of an "enemy" or someone or something less "pure" which then can "legitimately" be cannibalized without guilt.

As a tactic of animal husbandry used by power-mongols on the sheep, so to say, promoting polarizations among humans causes frenzies of positionings and associations, like musical chairs, in order to be aligned with the "right" side that is not going to be cannibalized. In those frenzies, the Balrog of unimaginable madness is unleashed.

Answer 7

Because when it comes down to it humans will do anything to get power. what you have to remember about Hitler and the halocaust is that he had germany wrapped around his little finger. while he was telling them how great germany was going to be again he was brainwashing them. i know this may sound dumb but it is true. there was a scientific study done a few years after the war (though very contraversial). what it showed was that if you tell someone that they absolutely have to do something otherwise everything will be ruined, they will argue but may eventually end up doing it anyways even if they dont believe in it. germany was in ruins after WWI. they had millions of dollars in repairs for themselves not to mention other countries. they were all poor and hungry and dying. they were absolutely desperate for something to look to for hope. Hitler provided that hope. they were willing to do whatever he wanted and did. many Nazi's came back after WWII and said they werent responsible for what they did because Hitler had brained washed him. towards the end of the war even Hitlers closest "friends" were turning on him. so thats how humans can be so cruel. because when we are down and out, we will look for anything to make us feel better even if it means killing millions of innocent people to get us there.

Answer 8

The cruelty of humanity has been been going on since man inhibit the earth. The Bible speaks of horrors, and although most of us can't understand it, that is where good and evil come in, we can only feel sorry and shocked but we can't stop it.

Answer 9

Because we are naturally competitive mammals, with a hormone called 'testosterone' running thru our bodies & a naturally hunting instinct too. In competitions, each likes to 'win' whatever it is they are competing for.

Answer 10

That is the way man can be sometimes, and no we don't have to accept it, we need to get it rid of people like that who just want to do harm or we need to get them professional help.