We must be taught to tolerate and respect all other people

By Naple News
Pam Shapiro / Naples / Senior, Barron Collier High School
December 26, 2006

Editor’s note:
This essay won Pam Shapiro a first-place prize in the 2009 Laws of Life essay contest. Her father shares it with readers in the wake of the public discussion of the kicking incident at North Naples Middle School.

Armenia. Nazi Germany. Tibet. Rwanda. Bosnia. Darfur.

These are just the scenes of several of hundreds of genocides and hate crimes that have occurred in recent history. What contributes to these atrocities? What makes a person want to kill a fellow human being? When a group of people feel that another group is inferior to themselves “classification” occurs. Then the propaganda starts. The lies begin to spread, and violence breaks out to suppress the inferior group; no longer a group of humans, but enemies.

It was a rainy and bleak day in Poland, appropriate for my first visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The mood was somber and everyone was quiet; we were paying respect to the dead. As I walked through the museum-like barracks of Auschwitz and the remnants of gas chambers in Birkenau, the phrase “never again” dominated my thoughts. I thought to myself, “Never again?” What about Rwanda? What about Darfur? How can we disrespect the lives of the nearly 4 million victims who died here at Birkenau? And the 7 million others who suffered under the Nazi rule? Standing on the train tracks leading into Birkenau, silent tears slipped down my face. How many people had ridden these tracks to their death? Thousands? Millions?

As I made my way through the torture chamber that was the sorting room, I felt chills run down my spine. Walking through the doors to be sorted, your humanity was left behind. Men and women were forced to strip, their heads shaved. The weak, the old and the young were the lucky ones, sent to a quick death. The strong men and women were left to the humiliation, starvation and torture of the sadistic Nazis. I tried to imagine myself in their position, no longer a person but a number. A number that had to be counted every morning — rain or shine, hot or cold. A number with no privacy. A number that longed for an extra piece of bread. I could not imagine such a life. I value the respect I give and receive; I cannot begin to imagine a life where respect is not even considered.

Driving away from Auschwitz, I couldn’t help but continue my haunting thoughts. Seeing a place of such organized death had made me cringe. How could people have done this? Why did people do this? The Hebrew name for the Holocaust, the Shoah, which means catastrophe, seems utterly appropriate. The Nazis systematically killed millions of people without batting an eye. How can a human being have absolutely no respect for another human being’s life?

What can be done about this utter lack of respect and tolerance that drives people to commit hate crimes and segregate fellow human beings? Whether it is a person’s religion, race or beliefs, we must be taught to tolerate and respect all other people. Having witnessed what a lack of these qualities can do, I feel obligated to make sure these values are not forgotten. If we as a society begin to place a higher emphasis on respect and tolerance, perhaps we will see a change in the amount of violence in the world. But we won’t know until we try.

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