Be nice to the kids

It’s only now that I regret not paying much attention in any of my History classes.

On second thought, I doubt that we even discussed about the Nazis. Our high school lectures were limited to the events in the Philippines, Asia, and a bit of the rest of the world. And then when I reached second year in college, I took Asian History instead of Western.

The only thing I knew, from my friends who love reading encyclopedias and history books on their free time, was that Adolf Hitler and his followers mistreated a lot of people. And that’s that.

So it wouldn’t have been much of a surprise that when we watched the film Into the Arms of Strangers for class two weeks ago, I got so shocked with what I saw. I never knew how pitiless the Nazis were to the Jews.

As the movie progressed, I can’t help but feel bad for myself for being too historically ignorant. I wasn’t able to understand fully how and why those circumstances happened, but rest assured, I felt a tingle of depression after every five minutes of the documentary.

However, the advent of the Kindertransport was another issue. No matter how ruthless separating young children from their parents may have seemed at that time, I thought the system was a good enough solution for the safety of the kids and for them to have better chances at living.