Do you think that enough is done to discuss and prevent genocide?
I don't believe we can ever stop people behaving savagely toward one another. The herd can always be manipulated. But I believe that more we understand this human phenomenon, the greater our chances of reducing it.
Anti-Semitism and racism in general are diseases passed from one generation to another. Yet the optimist in me knows that no child is born an anti-Semite or a racist. I paraphrase others when I say I do not know what a Jew is – or for that matter a Christian, a Chinese, a Muslim or even a Pygmy – I recognize only human beings. It occurs to me that every time we resist hatred and each time we teach tolerance to our children, we make the future of the world that much better.
I put this idea to Sam, Hershl’s son. He sighed and said: "I think that’s too much to hope for."
Thank you to Mark for taking the time to participate in this interview and for the incredibly detailed responses. Read the Blogcritics review at: Book Review: Treblinka Survivor: The Life and Death of Hershl Sperling by Mark S. Smith. You can purchase the paperback of Treblinka Survivor at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
Article comments
1 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Excellent interview, Mandy - both Q & A. An incisive and haunting account. Thanks.
2 - Mandy Southgate
Thank you Gordon. This excellent book stayed with me for months after reading it and I was very pleased when the author agreed to answer some of my additional questions.
3 - Heloise
I am always looking for a good book on survivors. He mentions Primo who also killed himself by jumping out of a window after surviving death camps. This is a long article will read though and tweet later. thanks
PS: Genocide can never be fixed or cured it will always be.
Heloise
4 - Mandy Southgate
Heloise, I did not know that about Primo Levi although something tells me I really should have known! How terrible, I have just been reading about it. As Elie Wiesel is quoted as saying, he died at Auschwitz, only 40 years later.
If you are looking for a good book on survivors, I cannot recommend this one highly enough. It was riveting and remains with me over a year after I finished reading it.
I disagree with you about genocide. It is a complex thing but a lot of time and energy goes into the systematic planning and execution of a genocide. We need to put as much effort into counteracting it. Perhaps in our lifetime, we will not know whether genocide can be "cured", but we can identify the warning signs and take action; we can educate people on tolerance and coexistence; we can talk about the Holocaust and Rwanda, Srebrenica and Darfur; and we can continue our work in genocide prevention and education regardless.
5 - Natasha
Excellent article. When we begin to understand that the Holocaust was not a comfortably "German" thing but an international phenomenon, like Edwin Black, son of Holocaust survivors himself, so hauntingly illustrates in books such as "IBM and the holocaust" and "Nazi Nexus" and that the Holocaust was not limited to Jews but included many more victims far too often forgotten - such as Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, blacks, POWs, Trade Unionists, mentally handicapped etc. etc.-, when we grow beyond the black and white-thinking we have learned in our history lessons and act accordingly, then we may stop the global madness of genocide one day and become truly human beings - not only physically but mentally and emotionally as well. And this next step of human evolution starts with ourselves.