In her diary, Anne Frank wrote that she believed “most people are good.” Do you agree with Anne? If so, why, and if not, why not? (Echoes and Reflections)
When Anne Frank said that she believed that most people are good I strongly agree of what she says because everyone has a choice to do a certain things and for the Nazis soldiers they could have chose to not be a soldier and be abusive to the Jews. But since they learned how to be aggressive towards certain people and since they were taught to hate Jews, they thought what they were doing was right even though it wasn't. Sometimes when people made choice-less choices they are good people but they had to do what they had to do in order to survive. So I think that most people start off good and innocent but if they want to survive and live, I´m pretty sure that they would not chose the right way but they would do it to survive.
James, One day when I was wandering around at lunch time in New York City, I saw a sort of marble panel at about eye level on a building. When I got closer to it, it said that it was a memorial to one of the camps, Dachau, I think. It showed the layout of the camp from above, but what really struck me was the saying under it. It said,
ReplyDelete"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing."
After that I don't think I can ever be a bystander.
Posted by Bob Cohn
James,
DeleteI agree everyone has a choice and it's a very powerful responsibility we have. I wonder though if the soldiers felt their only choice was to hate the Jews. If you are told the wrong "right" thing to do and not question it, you make a choice-less decision.
Posted by Diana Koc
I agree with your opinion that most people are good. The connection between he soldiers and their decisions to fight in the war was interesting. That point is incredibly true and a great one that hasn't been much spoken of. I want to make a point on how the German nation just stood by and followed Hitler's decisions on being ruthless to the Jews. The people saw that Hitler was secluding them from many things. When it gets to a breaking point or a life and death situation, humans naturally make a self-protection decision without thinking of others, even if it's not necessarily good. I agree with Anne and think that people are good, until society or in this case government, strains their morals.
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