From a Name to a Number

I suffered a lot while being incarcerated in five enforced labor and concentration camps during the Holocaust. I derived many lessons; one of them has been that:

Stereotyping is unjustified – Painting any ethnic group with the same brush is disconcerting. At one point a vicious German guard knocked out many of my teeth and at another point a German woman risked her life for me. How? She and I worked at the same factory. She was forbidden to make even eye contact with me, but she did. On the way to the restroom, she hinted to me with her finger to a site where she had put a sandwich for me. That noble German left two slices of white bread with a slice of cheese for me every day for thirty days, as long as I worked at that location. She risked her life for me not once, but thirty times. This woman and that guard were both German nationals but one was wicked and the other was righteous. Not all Germans had stony hearts. I have learned to judge each individual only on his or her merits. Prejudice or stereotyping is absurd! Voltaire, (the 18th hundred French philosopher) said “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities” Hitler had considered males with blond hair and blue eyes ideal Aryans, everybody else was deemed to be inferior. Even German women were considered to be inferior, fit only for housekeepers and breeders. I have learned that talents reside among males and females of every ethnic group