There’s a significant difference in all the extra ways we have to distract ourselves from reality now. Back then they had little choice but to see what was going on, but nowadays so many people are burying their heads into gaming, social media, streaming video, etc. that they (often deliberately) aren’t even aware of the horrors happening next door. I can’t say as I entirely blame them because it’s depressing and overwhelming AF - especially when it’s your own fellow countrymen behind it all.
Back then they had little choice but to see what was going on
I think you’re underselling the impact of early newspaper and radio, or the ideological influences of the Catholic Church.
Back then they were unusually blind. It wasn’t easy to know what was happening in Zurich or Frankfurt from Berlin, nevermind what was happening in Poland or France.
The regular citizens, and even low level soldiers, didn’t know about the extermination camps. Allied forces forced German soldiers to watch footage of the camps and even forced the local civilians to walk through the camps.
Most people were complacent because it looked like people were ‘just’ being arrested, detained and deported. It wasn’t until after the war that they learned about the extermination camps.
We’re not running extermination camps yet, though it’s hard to imagine a good outcome for a person who is deported into an African country in the middle of a civil war. So people are largely complacent because it looks like people are only being arrested and detained.
As the poem says:
“First they came for the immigrants and I didn’t speak up because I was not an immigrant.”
There’s a significant difference in all the extra ways we have to distract ourselves from reality now. Back then they had little choice but to see what was going on, but nowadays so many people are burying their heads into gaming, social media, streaming video, etc. that they (often deliberately) aren’t even aware of the horrors happening next door. I can’t say as I entirely blame them because it’s depressing and overwhelming AF - especially when it’s your own fellow countrymen behind it all.
I think you’re underselling the impact of early newspaper and radio, or the ideological influences of the Catholic Church.
Back then they were unusually blind. It wasn’t easy to know what was happening in Zurich or Frankfurt from Berlin, nevermind what was happening in Poland or France.
Lying was much easier.
They lacked access to the information.
The regular citizens, and even low level soldiers, didn’t know about the extermination camps. Allied forces forced German soldiers to watch footage of the camps and even forced the local civilians to walk through the camps.
Most people were complacent because it looked like people were ‘just’ being arrested, detained and deported. It wasn’t until after the war that they learned about the extermination camps.
We’re not running extermination camps yet, though it’s hard to imagine a good outcome for a person who is deported into an African country in the middle of a civil war. So people are largely complacent because it looks like people are only being arrested and detained.
As the poem says:
“First they came for the immigrants and I didn’t speak up because I was not an immigrant.”