Between people who care about each other – or ought to – violence is never the answer to grievances; but rather a part of the problem and a dangerous one at that.
If violence fails to stem the tide of grievances there will always be those who argue that it has failed because it was not enough; that to make sure #blacklivesmatter, more police officers should be shot. But violence is even more dangerous if it is deemed to have succeeded. If the tide begins to turn today against police brutality there will be those who will argue that the renewed interest in safeguarding people of colour is not because #AltonSterling or #PhilandoCastile gave “the last full measure of devotion”, but rather, the argument will go, that the spectre of black men “fighting back” is what forced white America to reassess.
The American political tradition has much that is shameful: Slavery, the genocide of native Americans, Jim Crow laws, and much more. But it also has much that is ennobling. I continuously pray that the United States of today can be inspired by the best of its traditions, not its worst. “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.”
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.” – Abraham Lincoln
PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN BY WAEL HADDARA DURING A VISIT OF DACHAU CONCENTRATION CAMP
Many experiences change who you are and how you view the world. Yesterday Prime Minister Trudeau visited Auschwitz-Birkenau and shared a written reflection in the book of remembrance on the importance of not forgetting the dark moments of history. “Today we bear witness to humanity’s capacity for deliberate cruelty and evil,” he wrote.
I was in Germany for a few days in late fall 2014 with some friends. We drove from Munich to Frankfurt and decided to make a stop in Dachau on our way to Frankfurt. The weather was appropriately dreary and cold. Of the five of us, all emotionally hardened health care professionals, accustomed to dealing with death, dying, tragedy and misery, only 2 could complete the tour. The rest terminated our visit after various lengths and re-grouped in the cafeteria.
For those not familiar with Dachau, unlike Auschwitz, it was not an extermination camp, but rather a camp originally intended to hold political prisoners and subsequently became a labour camp. Some 32,000 people are known to have died at Dachau and likely many thousands more perished without record.
Dachau is a place of indescribable evil, but the most disturbing element of Dachau was how it exemplified Hannah’s Arendt’s idea of the banality of evil. I watched a video of four survivors describing their arrival at the camp and their ordinary, bureaucratic, routine processing as they handed off their clothes and received camp clothes. On the walls, the paint had finally peeled off, years after Dachau was liberated to reveal an imprint: “Rauchen verboten” – no smoking. Records were meticulously kept and officers wrote home to their spouses as if they were posted at any other ordinary posting.
PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN BY WAEL HADDARA
“On the walls, the pain had finally peeled off, years after Dachau was liberated to reveal an imprint: “Rauchen verboten” – no smoking.”
I found myself reflecting on what exactly has been learned from Dachau. Germans, as a nation, seem to have learned much. But it is disheartening to observe that humanity, as a whole, seems not to. Srebrenica calls into doubt whether “never again” is anything but a motto. How the world has approached Syria and the brutal, bloody reign of Assad, means that we have not learned the imperative of fighting those for whom human life is expendable. We have not learned that the sanctity of human life is non-negotiable. We have not learned that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” I found myself wondering what would have happened if Hitler had not been so reckless as to invade Russia and the Vichy regime was more successful in establishing a vassal state in France. Would the UK, the US and others have been more willing to ‘engage’ with the Nazis because Nazi power was a fait accompli?
In the center of the camp – where prisoner roll call was held, a sign now stands in four languages that reads: “May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933-1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defence of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow men.” I wondered then and I still do – has it?
I found myself more bothered by this question of ‘what have we learned’ than I thought I would be. I am still not sure. I know that given how difficult Dachau was, I am not likely to go to Auschwitz any time soon. One can only absorb so much evil at a time
PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN BY WAEL HADDARA
“May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933-1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defence of peace and freedom and in respect for their fellow men.”
