Escape from Sobibor/Cultural Identity and Biases

It was a double-edged sword. Escape from Sobibor was a film based off of actual events that unfolded in a Nazi death camp during WWII. In Sobibor, a group of prisoners banded together to successfully revolt, escaping their impending peril and marking their place in the history books. From watching the film, the most concerning question that seems to come up is “Why?” Why would the Nazi’s outright plan to deduce an entire culture in to merely nothing? Why? It was clear: A mixture of ethnocentrism, prejudice, and the perfect storm of cultural taxonomies When studying WWII, it was clear that the motivation of those in charge was fueled by ethnocentrism. It was the driving force behind the entire operation of the Nazi’s. It was believed that the Nazi’s were of Aryan decent—blonde haired, blue eyed Caucasians—that were entitled to be great. By the end of WWI, the Germans were suffering from the retaliation of the world due to the initial commencement of the war, therefore they were looking to be great. In order to be great, someone has to fall—in this particular case, it was the Jews. The Nazi’s blamed the Jews for their problems, instilled a sense of racism with the claims that they were no good, and promoted their place as God’s perfection. This was taken in such a profound way, a following amassed. The Nazi’s were actively prejudice, leading them act of will. They destroyed Jewish homes, work places, and more until they found the “Final Solution”, which is the term for the genocide of European Jews or the Holocaust.’ It is hard to imagine still how this kind of thing happened, but it did. It is not the first time that a domineering race of people were able to systematically play off the taxonomies of other cultures such as collectivism to toy with their cultural identity. In slavery, Europeans were able to dismantle African’s through separation—injecting individualism in a highly collective society—thereby upsetting its delicate balance. Once that happened, it was easy to take advantage of their culture. The same went for the Jews. Separation and their high power distance easily took them out of their element. The lesson learned from this film is that there are extreme in cultural identity and we must be forward thinking to understand that it may take us to a dark place if we are not too careful.  

 "Free your mind and the rest will follow. Be colorblind and the rest will follow" - SWV