Who's On Top?- Maddy Stutt 809

In all the books we read in the Holocaust Literature Book Club, the Nazis fight to be on top, and are struggling to gain more and more power. Everyone is so self absorbed that they believe that they are superior to all others, and that you can simply call everyone else animals and inhumane and that makes you better. To call a group of people scum and worthless does not have the power to make them scum or worthless. So many times in history races have decided that they are superior and have the right to power, and this means that they can simply kill other at will. This is so clearly not the case, and to call one group of people superior to another is so clearly wrong. People in the war, and now, are so self absorbed and in this state of mind where they or whatever group of people they fall into is better than that of others, whether or not they even realize it.

People will always wonder how one person could ever lose themselves so much that they have the ability to, as we read in "Maus", grab a child and smash him or her against a brick wall until they are dead, because they are crying? How could they not see the face of a brother, sister, son, daughter, or childhood friend? They are so caught up in saving their own lives, that it is not very hard to believe others are worthless and not as important, it becomes so easy to just say 'this child is an animal' and even if you don't believe in that, to many its much easier than risking their own lives. To so many young men, they could fight for the Nazi's, which seemed like the better choice for staying alive, or be at risk. They may not have realized it, but to go against what is right for your own individual strength or 'safety' is selfish. When the time comes, I realized while reading these books, almost every person, decided that they were quite simply, better, than everyone else and was able to put their own security before that of another one person, or even another group of people. In addition, when Jews needing protection came to the door of most families, they were shut out. This choice seemed logical and reasonable, yet to an entirely selfless person, one who was thinking of others needs in such an awful times, sending Jews away would have seemed like the wrong thing.

I also began to think of the idea of groups of beings as more superior than others. People, in general, regard themselves as the most important form of life. Maybe not scientifically, but in the worth of life, we regard ourselves as the highest. The things done at the holocaust are disgusting and sick, and almost ever person today knows that. But I realized such horrors are done to other species every day. We may consider ourselves the most important, simply because we are the most intelligent and the most advanced, but does that give us the right to go around killing other animals that feel physical pain as well as we do? Just because Germany's armies gained the most power they still had no right to kill of other humans. I know that it is not quite to the same horrific extent, but just because we are the most advanced species do we have the right to consider the head of another species, like a deer, a trophy we can put above our fireplace? Does it make it right to care so little about a fox, that humans will skin them alive and leave them dead, for the mere pleasure of wearing a fur jacket? It is not as extreme and sick as what Nazis did, especially because they committed the most disgusting crimes to their own species, but does it make it okay to do things like that to another living being because they are not as intelligent or the same as you?I began thinking about this, when in Maus 2, Vladek is talking about the poison used in gas chambers (which is also in bug spray), and then goes and kills a mosquito with he same poison used to kill his friends. Are humans selfish enough to regard themselves as so special that they get the right to do that to others not as strong or with as much power as them?

I think that through reading these books about The Holocaust I realized how much self centered people made all those things possible, and how the people needed to stand together for one another, yet very few had the courage to put something at risk for the good of everyone. In addition, the idea of who is the most important and who gets the most power obviously played a huge role with the Nazis considering the Jews animals and calling themselves more important, and I began thinking about what impact that idea of who's on top plays today. What should define who as more power, and therefore has the right to kill the less powerful at will?