Most people would like to believe that discrimination doesn't occur in the twentieth century, but the reality is that it does and always has. Millions of innocent lives have been taken on account of irrational accusations against people because of their race or religion. It is hard to admit that human beings are willing to destroy others because of what they look like, who they are, or what religion they practice. It's even harder to believe that these occur almost everyday. Many people would like to ignore this horrible truth and go on with their daily lives. To unjustly accuse people of imagined crimes, and then to punish them, is a crime itself.
The Holocaust is an event that took the lives of millions of innocent people. Between 1939-1945, six million people were murdered. Almost ninety percent of the Jewish population in Europe was destroyed, and for what? Their lives were taken because Adolf Hitler believed that being Jewish was a crime. How can one man decide that he is more worthy that others because of their religious beliefs or the color of their hair. He lifted himself above others and decided who should live and who should die, and for that crime he remained unpunished. Those who have survived the holocaust have firsthand knowledge of the evil people, which so unfairly struck and deprived them of what was rightly theirs.
To refer to the holocaust as a 'monstrous, inhumane event' is to miss the point. The Holocaust was imposed by men and women on other humans. 'It was a time when there were people, not only the Germans, but the others too, who wanted to kill all the Jewish people. After they killed off the Jewish people, they weren't satisfied yet. They started killing the black people, then the brown, and then the yellow people. People with blonde hair and blue eyes were the 'perfect race.' When one survivor was asked about the holocaust and how the world learned from it, he responded with, 'What the world learned from the holocaust is that you can kill six million Jews and no one will care.'
The Holocaust destroyed families, friends, and even cities. People were tortured and killed all because of whom they were or what they looked like. The Holocaust exposed the ease with which man can kill and torture and justifiably believe that it is right, even the necessary thing to do. Most of us see the Holocaust from the historical perspective. It was an event in time. But we must understand that for the survivors of this trauma, any trauma, this event is an ongoing one, with consequences that will follow them for the rest of their lives. Some people were lucky enough to escape the Nazi's, or to survive the concentration camps, but these people will never be lucky enough to escape the horrific memories. The concept the 'dead survivor' may seem unrealistic, but for many of those who lived through the tragedy, it describes their existence. The fact is that for thousands of individuals, the Holocaust did not end until 1945. One individual said, 'It is far easier to extinguish a man, than to extinguish his memories.' For most, the Holocaust is already a distant piece of history. For the survivors, the Holocaust was yesterday....and today.
Rosewood was a small little town in western Florida. It had three churches, a general store, a Masonic lodge, a school, a baseball diamond-everything a town of 150 people would need. It was a prosperous town that took care of itself. Its only fault was that it was a black town in a white place at a white time. January 1, 1923, the town of Rosewood was destroyed. A woman from the neighboring Caucasian town of Sumner, Frannie Taylor, wife and mother of two, came out of her house, face battered, mouth bleeding, sobbing, and shrieking. She claimed that she was attacked by a black man. The sheriff came, he reported that the day before Jesse Hunter escaped from a roadway gang. The blood hounds were on their way. The dogs smelled the clothes and went straight to Rosewood.
The people of Rosewood could hear the mob of men and dogs approaching their town. The dogs stopped at the house of Aaron Carrier, he was not at home. Outback were fresh wagon tracks, and then the scent stopped. They found him at his mother's house. They dragged him out and tortured him until he would talk. He said he didn't do it. Sam Carter took the convict. Part of the ferocious mob stayed with Aaron and others went for Sam. The mob went around Rosewood telling people to get inside and to leave town. They found Carter and tied a noose around his head, he said he would talk. Sam took them to the place where he left the fugitive. The dog's couldn't get a scent. The mob cut off parts of Sam's body and saved them for souvenirs. They killed Sam and used his dead body as target practice. Frannie Taylors' assailant was still at large.
Sylvester Carrier and his father went to prison fro ...