ALEXANDER KIMEL - HOLOCAUST UNDERSTANDING & PREVENTION

I received recently a few inquiries related to Holocaust research papers, such as the "Education of Children in Nazi and Russian Camps" or "The Resiliency of Woman during the Holocaust." Suddenly, I realized how irreverent those topics were. There were no children in Nazi Camps, they were all killed. There were no children in Stalin's Gulags. Similarly, the Germans killed indiscriminately all Jews: men, women and children and the behavior of the victims subjected to hunger, terror and psychological warfare, is similar regardless of sex or age. I feel, that the Holocaust is a tragedy of epic proportions and there are many lessons to be learned. In this vein , I compiled a short list of Topics for Holocaust College or research papers:

1. Holocaust as a Warning to Mankind.
   The Holocaust created a precedence of human cruelty, and raised the levels of accepted violence.
2. Why were the Jews killed?
   What was the rationale for the mindless, indiscriminate killings? What purpose did it serve?
3. Who were the killers?
   Sadists, or normal people engaged in the state sponsored violence.
4. Culturally induced violence.
   Many Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, or Croats, killed Jews voluntarily. This was a culturally induced violence. Why?
5. The contagiousness of violence, hatred and prejudices.
6. The Holocaust as a Business.
   The Germans confiscated the Jewish properties, personal belongings and even recycled parts of their bodies: hair for mattresses, fat for soap, gold fillings were extracted from their mouths. German firms built crematoriums, cleaned the blood stained garments for recycling, made soap from human fat.
7. Communism and fascism as movements of despair induced by hopelessness and violence of WWI.
8. Post-Holocaust Developments.
   The miraculous rebirth of the Jewish people. The creation of the State of Israel.
9. The failure of the established institutions.
10. The responsibility of the German people.
11. Why was the World Silent?
12. Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.
13. The use of the Victims in the process of destruction.
14. The Abandonment of the Jews

Why were the Churches Silent?

15. The Vulnerability of modern man to the overbearing powers of a totalitarian state. Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pot Pol, Saddam Hussein.
16. Holocaust and man's gullibility.

kimel@systec.com