Why is the Holocaust central to the post WWII concern with human rights?

After attending La Memorial de la Shoah and wandering the surrounding neighborhood, I have an entirely new understanding of how the Holocaust was central to the development of human rights. Obviously, the genocide of the Jewish population of Europe is clearly a violation to human rights but before this event occurred the need for a universal doctrine protecting such human rights was not thought necessary. Since World War II, the world has become more and more interconnected and, hence, smaller. When one country violates human rights like the Nazi’s did in Germany it affects the human rights of those all over the world, not just Germany. As a result, a universal declaration outlining and defining basic human rights became one of the most substantial aftershocks of the Holocaust.

The Holocaust cannot be described appropriately or accurately even with the language of human rights violations. The atrocities inflicted upon the Jewish population are arguably the worst in all of history because of the systematic and predetermined nature of the mass killings and destruction. The language provided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights only seemingly skims the surface of the atrocities the Jews faced during World War II but was the first document of its kind to outline the rights of a human. Before World War II, the world was smaller and countries were not as interconnected. Hence, violations in human rights were to be dealt with within the state itself, not mandated by an outside institution like the United Nations. With the elimination of 6 million Jews in less than 3 years though, the world was in need of new protections of human rights, clearly outlined and spelled out. The Holocaust provided the global community with a launch pad for necessary language to be written on human rights.

This tragic event was also pivotal to the implementation of permanent and spelled out human rights because the atrocities were largely ignored by the great world powers of the time. In an optimistic view, these powers had no human rights language or legal power to enforce a declaration against Hitler’s destruction of the Jews. Others may argue they were too selfish to care about the Jews but I truly believe that because of the new language provided to the world with the Universal Human Rights Declaration the protection of human rights has improved. Events like the Holocaust have occurred since the 1940s but because of the document, they have been stopped, or attempted to be stopped, by the global community. This is a step in the right direction, regardless of opinions on how effective this global community actually remains. The Holocaust is pivotal to understanding the development of human rights because it was the catalyst for what we know today as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.