Nazi Opposition and the Holocaust

In “Opposition and Resistance in Nazi Germany”, Frank McDonough explains that the Christian Church was the only organization in Hitler’s Germany that opposed Nazism.  For this reason, the Church was vehemently opposed by Hitler for Nazi opposition.  The chief opponents of Nazism within the Church were punished by the Nazis.  Nevertheless, the Church refused to bow to the Nazi regime seeing as the values of the Church differed widely from Nazism.

Samuel P. and Peral M. Oliner write in “The Holocaust: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretations” that there were around 50,000 to 500,000 non-Jews with altruistic personalities that came to rescue the Jews during World War II.  Although the period was marked by extreme violence and bloodshed, good was meant to overcome evil in the form of countless people that risked their lives for the Jews, despite the fact that they were not related to the Jews by religion, culture, or ethnicity.

Peter Hayes mentions several such people by name in his article, “Lessons and Legacies: The Meaning of the Holocaust in a Changing World.”  According to the author, although the Nazis believed that it was a crime to help the Jews, the brave people who helped the Jews refused to submit to Nazi pressure and injustice.

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Analysis

All of the articles summarized above provide evidence to back up the authors’ theses.  While Frank McDonough provides historical examples of the conflict between the Church and Nazism; Samuel P. and Peral M. Oliner provide research evidence to show the altruistic characteristics of the brave non-Jewish rescuers that came to help the Jews without expecting a monetary reward in exchange for their help.  Peter Hayes uses the case study method to describe the altruistic personality of the non-Jewish rescuer.

Hence, all three articles provide enough information for the writer to understand the respective topics in depth.  What is more, all three articles present information in a logical manner.  After introducing the topics of their articles, the authors present evidence to support their thesis, connecting each of their sentences and paragraphs to the previous ones.  At no point does it appear that the authors are digressing or providing little in terms of reasoning.  Rather, the articles are complete in terms of logic.

Personal Response to the Readings

In my opinion, the most important fact to infer from the summarized readings is that good and evil can be interwoven even in terms in great distress.  Indeed, it is good news for humanity that everybody would not submit to evil despite all odds.  So, even though the Nazis were a great threat for the good people in their area, innumerable such people refused to be afraid of Nazism, and instead made an effort to help the Jews.  The Church refused to bow to Nazi dictatorship to boot.  I believe this is a victory for religion, even if the Jews were being persecuted because of their religion alone.  Indeed, my faith in the power of religion as well as good over evil has been strengthened through these readings.

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