The Holocaust

"The Holocaust was one of the worst things in our

history", "The Holocaust is very much alive.

The wounds are still there. The scars are still there.

The influence is still there." Those are some

quotes about what people thought about the Holocaust.

A few days ago a holocaust surviver, Eva Olsson, came to speak to my school about the horrors of the holocaust. She was a very great speaker and gave me a better idea about how life would have been like if I was like her. Her speech was very moving and touching, I couldn't believe what awful things people would do to each other.

Some things that impacted me the most were how she lost all of her family, they took her younger cousin away from her and she got separated from her mother and father. She told us how mothers who were holding children would have a shot through them both to save a bullet. I can't imagine how hard that would've been. Other mothers were forced to watch their children suffer and slowly die. I can't believe that people would do things like that!

I will always remember how many people were killed for the smallest differences! Hitler hated a certain religion and decided just to kill them off. That is very wrong, and is such an awful thing to happen! I don't think anyone will ever be able to forget what happened because of hate.

I really wish I knew what was going through Hitler's mind at the times when he thought about killing people and while he was doing it, did he ever feel bad about what he had done or did he think it was right? I would also like to know what the people were thinking who were being killed, or watching their family and friends die, it must have been awful. I would like to know how people stayed strong through the whole time. If I was in their situation I would've completely broke down, which they must have, but I have no idea how I would get through it.

The lessons Eva was really trying to teach us was not to hate ever. You shouldn't hate anyone or anything, not a certain religion, or a person originating from one place, or some place not the same as you. All of that killing was because they hated them and decided to eliminate them. People can easily put those instructions into use everyday, I mean everyday you hear people saying: "I hate math!" or even "Wow, I really hate Joshua!" Eva was encouraging people to say: "I don't like math" instead of using the word "hate". So in every day life don't hate anything, you can strongly dislike it, but not hate.

So in conclusion, don't hate things, the holocaust and all of those deaths was caused by hate. The holocaust was a very awful time and we can't let it happen again.

-Fiona XOX