I enjoy all kinds of movies, but none more than a good documentary or reflections of historical events – for me, movies can be a great launch point into deeper questions, greater insight, different perspectives, and mostly fact checking, and real research.
I recently watched “Denial” – it is the 2016 movie based on the book “History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier” – it recounts the true story of Deborah Lipstadt’s legal battle for historical truth against David Irving – Irving is a historian and author – Lipstadt is a Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies – Irving accused Lipstadt of libel when she declared him a Holocaust denier – as it happens, the English legal system in defamation cases, puts the burden of proof is on the accused – so it was up to Lipstadt to prove the Holocaust occurred in order to not be found guilty of libel (interesting for sure).
The case, and movie were emotionally charged – viewers are lead back and forth across the two sides of the legal battle, as well as the historical content involved – as this historical journey unfolded, one can’t help but find themselves leaning back and forth from one side of the case to the other.
At one point in the movie Lipstadt surprised me – after the trial, but before the verdict, she addressed her students about the history of Nazis – she pointed out there are those who glibly say:
“If I’d been in Germany I would have never collaborated, I would have resisted.” She was speaking in contrast to the German people who had assisted Nazi’s in their efforts.
She continues, “Can you imagine, standing up to that enemy? It was an arduous, uncertain, and exhausting time. They believed they had to do it.” She appears to be sympathizing with the German people who assisted the Nazi’s.
Lipstadt goes on to say, “It’s only in hindsight do things get called heroic. At the time, they’re just afraid – afraid of how things will turn out.”
This is an interesting and captivating illustration of real people being impacted by human nature testing and compelling them into behaviors which support an absolute wrong – the compulsion is real despite the wrong – normal, everyday people forced themselves to deny a horrific wrong, and behave in support of the wrong, for reasons known only to themselves – these reasons can be speculated on, but for this text, we’ll focus on the fact that they denied a wrong.
In contrast, history has taught us there were many amazing people who did heroic things to counter act Nazi war crimes – but there were far more Nazi collaborator and sympathizers than the likes of these heroes.
This was a very powerful position for Lipstadt to embrace – it’s a position for us to consider as well – but not just in relation to Nazi war crimes – it should be applied to any unjust, horrific, abusive event in our collective histories – for thousands of years, people in power have oppressed another people groups for selfish motives – unfortunately, peoples on either side of the wrong found themselves in the position of having to deny and support the absolute wrong – its important to point out that to ‘call-out’ an absolute wrong often comes at the high cost of danger, uncertainty and often death.
Absolute wrongs from the last 500 years include, but not limited to: unjust wars and atrocities, genocides and ethnic cleansing, imperialization/colonization, forced migrations of indigenous peoples, enslavement, institutional forced labor/abuse, prejudices, racism, abuse of women/children, religious persecution, exacerbated disease and famine, riots and unrest, inhumane prisons/camps… just to name a few – the actual list by name, participants and cost is embarrassing and exhausting.
In all these horrific events there is a common thread – there is a people group in power forcing a “wrong” onto another people group – I do not mean to oversimplify any of these events, but that is the absolute truth of all these absolute wrongs.
To the point, within all the people groups in power there are millions of normal everyday people forced to call-out or deny the absolute wrong in the face of danger, uncertainty, or death.
Today, many of us beat our chests and proclaim that we would have (without hesitation) called-out, and stood up to whatever the wrong was – we loudly proclaim our commitment to justice, equality, rule of fair law, compassion, and a long list of positive character traits we hope others are able to easily see in each of us – yet, not to be overlooked, are the real documented outcomes of so many historical absolute wrongs that (at the time) involved “hands-on participants” who proclaimed (at one time) the same devotion to those positive traits – read it again, this is important…
Can we see the unpleasant connection forming here? Its people, just like us, who became the facilitators and participants of all these historical (and modern day) absolute wrongs – yes, it’s people just like us – sorry.
To complete the point, there are much smaller numbers of people within the people groups in power (forcing a “wrong” onto another people group) who did call-out and stand up against absolute wrongs – these rare heroes are championed in many nations around the world today – there are many of these examples we could draw on and learn from, even though many of these heroes suffered greatly.
What is it that emboldens a person to face the danger, uncertainty, and possible death for the cause of a person suffering a wrong at the hand of another person?
What is it that causes a person to fear the danger, uncertainty, and possible death so much that they would deny an absolute wrong at the cost of an innocent’s suffering?
Mankind and human nature can be a mystery – perhaps we need to evaluate how we frame historical things – education for example – today education is in the crosshairs of change or collapse – depending on your politics – consider this framing exercise:
Education may not be memorizing that Stalin killed millions of his own people – education could be understanding how millions of ordinary Russians were convinced that Stalin killing millions of his own people was required – maybe real education is learning how to spot the signs of negative history repeating itself – but for this type of deductive reasoning to be taught, age-appropriate consideration of the historical absolute wrongs would have to be evaluated – this is a largely contested question in school boards today.
Getting back on track, addressing absolute wrongs within a people group – people and people groups are motivated by many things – power, money, fame, hate, control, resources, misguided religion, etc… – the wrongs produced from these motives can be framed a lot of ways, but none of them will measure up to right, just, or true – whatever motives cause the absolute wrongs within a people group, it’s easy to see how many people may struggle to call-out the wrong – regardless of the struggle: shame, fear, uncertainty, danger, or even death an absolute wrong is still wrong and carries a high cost.
There is no way to unframe an absolute wrong – an absolute wrong has an absolute value that is a constant if not called out – there is no way to outlive, outlast, overlook, hide from, ignore, or bury an unaddressed absolute wrong – there is just no way… call it out, address it, or be prepared to repeat it – because in the end, most people are just not who we claim to be – we are just not prepared (for whatever reason) to deny an absolute wrong in the world around us.
“Denial”
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4645330/
“List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll“
Kevin's Thoughts 