1 The Victims in the Shadows According to Merriam-Webster, the word holocaust comes from the Greek holokauston, meaning “burnt whole.” The Holocaust generally refers to the mass slaughter of European civilians and especially Jews by the Nazis during World War II. The Holocaust was a German campaign to remove certain classes of persons, but above all Jews, in an effort to promote world domination by the Aryan Race. While most people are aware of the great number of Jewish lives lost during the Holocaust, fewer realize that, as a whole, the Polish people, both Jewish and non-Jewish, made up the majority of the fatalities associated with the Holocaust. Roughly 55% of victims, six million of the eleven million attributed to the Holocaust, were Polish. Astonishingly, research estimates that nearly identical numbers of mostly Roman Catholic Poles were killed as Jewish Poles. These non-Jewish Poles are one of many forgotten victims of the Holocaust. The Nazis viewed the Polish as “inferior beings” and “sub-humans” that were occupying lands vital to Germany and its people. In an effort to annihilate these people, the Nazis used SS death squads and members of the Einsatzgruppen to arrest or kill any civilians in Nazi occupied lands. They were tasked with finding those who resisted the Nazis or those deemed capable of resistance due to their position in society and such. Tens of thousands of members of the intelligentsia (government officials, priests, doctors, attorneys, teachers, and other educated citizens) were executed or arrested and sent to concentration camps. The Nazis also attempted to destroy Polish culture by destroying or closing places of learning such as museums, schools, libraries, and universities. Monuments to national heroes were demolished in an effort to demoralize the population. They also declared that Polish children’s schooling would end after only a few years so 2 as to “prevent the birth of a new generation of educated Poles.” One of the Nazis top priorities in Poland was the complete “Germanization” of the land into a continuation of the German Third Reich. Streets and cities in Poland were renamed, Polish schools were closed, and countless Polish businesses were seized and closed. The Roman Catholic Church was also heavily suppressed because it had historically been used as a rallying point for Poland’s nationalist forces fighting for Polish independence from foreign dominance. The Germans closed churches, seminaries, and convents and persecuted priests, nuns, and monks in an effort to dismantle the church’s power. Many stories of heroism emerged during this time, among them, the story of Odon Jerzy Wos. At the age of thirteen, Odon, a Roman Catholic Pole, was present during the fall of Warsaw. The death and destruction that he witnessed led him to join the Polish underground and at the age of sixteen, he took part in the Warsaw uprisings against the Germans. The fighting lasted for sixty-three days before he was captured and taken to a POW camp in Austria. After escaping, he joined the Polish troops fighting with the Allies in France. Wos survived the war and went on to prosper in the Northeastern United States. His obituary from 2011 included the following citations “during the Uprising, he brought supplies and munitions through two foot round sewers to the Old Town of Warsaw and the Jewish ghetto in order to free his countrymen, no matter their faith. A Prisoner of War at Markt Pongau Stalag XVIIIC, for his courage and strength he was awarded 13 medals, including the Commander's Cross by the President of Poland during the 60th Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, and the War Medal by the British Ministry of Defense.” Despite his heroics, Wos does not appear to be mentioned in any history books. The Poles have worked hard to document the atrocities committed against 3 their people and the heroics that arose from them. In doing so, their hope is that Operation White, or the Fall of Poland, will never again be repeated. Across the globe, the horrors of war and the atrocities of war crimes committed today are transmitted nearly instantaneously through the World Wide Web. In addition, the free press assists in informing the world of crimes against humanity. Groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Christian Science Monitor work to prevent a reoccurrence of the genocide and torture of the Holocaust. Because the world was educated after the fact, about the Holocaust, people are more inclined to be outraged upon learning of inhumane treatment of civilians in warzones today. For instance, the use of chemical weapons on civilians in the Syrian conflict recently brought condemnation on a global scale. Darfur has been another hotspot in the world due to reports of genocide. Amnesty International has worked tirelessly to make sure that the victims of Darfur are not forgotten and that justice will be served. Edmund Burke remarked “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” It is up this generation and future generations to stand up against wickedness. Each of us has the power and the ability to stop evil in some form. When we choose not to use this power, either through fear or indifference, then we condone the evil act and, in fact, encourage an escalation to even greater wickedness. As for me I will use my power, to the best of my ability, in hopes of stopping evil. 4 Works Cited "Definition: Holocaust." Merriam-webster.com. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. "Jerzy Wos." Legacy.com. North Jersey, 30 Aug. 2011. Web. 08 Feb. 2014. "Odon Jerzy Wos." Ushmm.org. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2014. "Poles: Victims of the Nazi Era." Ushmm.org. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2014.