J is for "Justice;" Learning to embrace a liberal arts education

I haven't been to the United States Holocaust Museum since I was in 8th grade, but I remember every second of it.  Today was a type of deja vu in that I was seeing the same tragic photos and emotional videos as I saw whenever I was 14.  The only difference was that today I was actually able to take a deeper look at the explanations and artifact.  Today, I was able to use my college education to think more critically about what happened in Germany.

The exterior of the Holocaust Museum.  This will be my
only picture of visiting the museum out of respect for the
victims and survivors of the Holocaust.

This past Spring at DePauw, I was fortunate enough to get into "Equality and Justice," a very popular political science course taught by the one and only, Professor Smita Rahman.  Taking a look at the philosophy, sociology, and politics behind various instances of "equality" and "justice" in the past opened my understanding of what exactly equality and justice were and are.  We read Mill, Rousseau, Marx and even Goldman in order to unpack what these terms mean.  As you might have noticed, I've used quotes to initially introduce these topics.  This is because (as my POLS 235 class knows very well) it is very difficult to nail down what exactly "equality" means, and exactly what constitutes "justice."

There is nothing good to be said for the Holocaust.  Don't even try to come up with something (I swear I'll cyber slap you).  And after a day of touring the Holocaust Museum and Memorial for the second time, I can't help but wonder: Where was equality? And was justice ever served?

My ticket.

My good friend, Anna Gawlik, a sophomore at DePauw, actually wrote her final paper for the course about the Nuremberg trials, discussing what ended up being the "justice served."  Today at the museum, I thought about her paper.  I also thought about a sociology course that I took at DePauw my sophomore year called, "The sociology of deviance."  It was one of the best courses I've taken at DePauw.  Professor David Newman spent an entire semester basically explaining that every rule, norm, disease, and crime is the product of social construction of what "society" doesn't like, or doesn't think should be.  I'm sure we can all attest to the fact that "society," as well as its definitions has been a giant work in progress.  We didn't just wake up one day and think that driving too fast was a bad thing.  Someone had to crash in order for repercussions to be made, and in order for a "justice" to be served.

My Identification Card. Luckily, Nesse
survived this tragic event. 

Walking thought the exhibits (I did not take pictures out of respect for the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, as the museum doubles as a memorial), I read the explanations, I saw the videos, and I read along with my "Identification Card," a passport for the museum that works to personalize the experience. While my story card was of a survivor, that is not always the case.  2 out of every 3 European Jews were killed under Hitler's rule.  Books were burned, businesses were destroyed, people were discriminated against and turned into slaves, and families were ripped apart.  Pre-Holocaust, it would have been hard to imagine such an atrocity.  Post-Holocaust, it's impossible to forget.

The Holocaust was the "crash" that shook history.  Looking back and learning about the Holocaust invites the screaming questions: "What were you doing? What were you allowing? Why was this allowed to happen?" Seeing the minimal intervention by the United States, and the "misunderstanding" of what was really happening, was one of the worst aspects of the tour.  Since Civil Rights, Women's Rights, and now LGBTQ Rights, the definition of equality and justice has certainly changed in the United States.  It's hard to look back now and to see how long concentration camps, ghettos, and persecution of Jews was allowed to go on.  What's even more troubling is the political/electoral processes and systems that allowed Hitler to stay in power for so long...(definitely learned about Germany's Reichstag elections in Professor Brett O'Bannon's Comparative Politics course this past semester).

Today forced me to reflect.  It also allowed me the opportunity to use some of what I've learned in unique courses at DePauw (let's be real, none of these courses would have been possible if it weren't for DePauw's Liberal Arts structure) to analyze, think, and gain a deeper understanding of not just a horrible event, but a period in time where the concepts of equality and justice existed, but were quite skewed from what we see as equal and just now.  This experience has not only opened my eyes and understanding, but has motivated me to apply more of my Liberal Arts education into everything I do.  We definitely take for granted how great we have it at DePauw (and in the U.S. for that matter), just as we take it for granted that our definitions of "equality" and "justice" have grown to prohibit an atrocity like the Holocaust.