Deprivation of Rights: History Should Not Be Repeated

I truly enjoyed this movie; I usually do not watch war movies but this really captured my attention. Europa Europa perfectly depicts how the lives of Jews were during the Hitler’s reign.

The movie starts with the scene of Solly being circumcised just like any other Jewish boys. This circumcision put Solly in frustration several times while he was pretending to be a Nazi to survive because once the Nazis find out that Solly was circumcised, they would have killed Solly just like the way they killed other Jews. Jewish people lost their right to live along with the right to have own religious beliefs. During the genocide, countless number of human rights were violated. On the Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it states, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

During the Holocaust, German government tried to eliminate the whole Jewish population cruelly. Some people say that there were some understandable reasons why Germans hated Jews but Holocaust is still highly criticized because what Germans did to Jews were more than inhuman and merciless acts.

Germans thought that the single answer to everything about their lives was “Hitler” and viewed Hitler as God. Leni, the girl that Solly liked, thought that her role in the country is to have pure German baby and devote to Hitler. Leni even told Solly that she would cut the throat of the Jew if she sees one. As demonstrated above, all the German children were educated to hate Jews: they learned that they are superior and that their hatred towards Jews is reasonable.

This was a really artistic piece and I especially liked the background sound effects that constantly gave me some tension. Germans disgust towards Jews was clearly expressed through both non-verbal and verbal expressions: Germans atrociously hung or shot Jews and used harsh language and referred them to vulgar names.
I could relate this film really well because during the early 1900s, during Japanese colonial era, Japanese tormented Koreans and took away innumerous rights. Many Korean women were raped and any Koreans who stood up for independence were captured with their right to trial taken away and were often punished to death. Simply imagining about being in that situation like Jews during Holocaust or Koreans during Japanese colonial era gives me pain. Everybody in the world should have proper rights that can keep one safe and happy. These sad histories should not be repeated and we all should try to respect and promote the rights of us and those of other people.