Why is the Holocaust central to the post WWII concern with Human Rights?

Laura Hall

Human Rights

Dr. Blair

March 6, 2011

Why is the Holocaust central to the post WWII concern with Human Rights?

After spending the past few weeks with my mind focused in on the Holocaust I still struggle with how to answer this question. The Holocaust shows multiple human rights violations. The obvious one being the right to life, one should not have to fear being executed and tortured. Others including the right to freedom of religion, right to adequate food, water, and shelter, the right to dignity, right to protection, and the right to security just to name a few. The thing that strikes me about the Holocaust and why I think it brought human rights to attention is that the victims were stripped of every basic human right. They had nothing, simple as that.

The Holocaust was not the first case of mass genocide and it has not been the last either. I think that it happening in a first world country also plays a part in its driving force behind human rights. I think it happening in Europe to a first world country made other European and first world countries see that they needed to take a stand, define, and defend human rights. Since this hit them so close to the heart that it was important to write it down and have people back the idea of it. It became an everyone thing instead of “us” and “them”. Then once people started taking human rights seriously and thinking about what it means and experiencing the violation of human rights first hand. I think that once you experience it you can more easily put yourself in someone else’s shoes and relate to human rights violations all around the world. Then see the importance of fighting for and defending human of everyone.