Alexander Contract was one of the survivors of the Holocaust following years of anti-Semitism across Europe and one that led to the killing of millions of Jews in Germany and other Nazis occupied region. Alexander argues that the killings that occurred on innocent children and older adults across the globe because of the hatred against the Jews must be concealed. Alexander points out that the main reason for atrocities against the Jews is the fact that lunatics can get to power and take on Jews who are perceived to have succeeded at the expense of the local people ( USC Shoah Foundation, 2010) . In explaining the relationship between the occurrence of the Holocaust and the lunatics coming to power, this paper will use Adolf Hitler and Stalin as examples of how certain ideologies can lead to the death of millions of people in the world. The vision and hope that Alexander has been that the world will understand that all races can live in peace across the globe.
The Holocaust was a result of anti-Semitism that escalated into violence at the time following the Nazis rise into power and their subsequent occupation of Eastern Europe at the time. Although Hitler did not invent anti-Semitism, he was introduced into it, and his subsequent rise to power only escalated the concept ( Dumitru, 2016) . Following the First World War, Germany was left in chaos. Hitler brought the feeling of nationalism among soldiers and marked his entry into politics. His lunatic views on Jewish people was becoming increasingly radical against the backdrop of revolution and violence. Hitler did not seem to support uncontrolled emotional pogroms and argued that the Germans needed to use the anti-Semitism of the mind. Therefore, anti-Semitism would have a legal foundation that would eventually lead to the removal of the Jews. As early as the 1920s, Hitler viewed the Jews as germs. This argument was that there was no way the disease can be controlled without destroying the cause of the disease. Therefore, the Jews influence in Germany would not end unless the Jews were removed from the country. The radical ideas led to the mass murders of the Jews during the Second World War.
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Based on the interview conducted on Alexander Contract, it is evident that life in the USSR was not easy especially for those who were considered foreigners. The anti-Semitism started manifesting itself when Contract was very young and working in the railroad. The Russian Christians did not allow the Jews to practice their religion in a peaceful manner as the synagogues were closed down. Contract’s father was a Rabbi and had to organize alternative plays to worship and conduct services after the synagogues were closed by the communist party.
Apart from working in the railroad, Contract joined the NKVD and became one of the propagandist for the Russian government and in particular the spy organization known as the NKVD. Contract was recruited by Khrushchev as part of the young people who were responsible for the spying in the railroad operations. Despite being handed the responsibility of reporting to the Russian government, Contract used his position to protect the interests of the Jewish people who were facing a lot of challenges including the pogroms that were castigated by the Russian Christians. An example of the pogroms was the subsequent relinquishing of his father brewery to Stalin, failure to which his family would have been deported to Siberia and other Asian regions. The pogroms led to the deportation of thousands of Jews from their lands at a time when the anti-Semitic crusaders were taking interests in the regional politics. As pointed out by contract, the Jews did not take the attacks lightly and organized some Zionist groups to retaliate against the Russian attacks.
Contract had to cancel his identity at some point in order for him to be able to survive. When he moved into Poland, it was evident that anti-Semitism did not end with the migration. Poland was as anti-Semitic as was Russia and the USSR in general. Jews were collected into concentration camps and were forced to work in order to have something to eat. Contract used his position as a NKVD agent in order for him to get food for his family. He revealed that he witnessed the Katyn’ Massacre where Khrushchev gave orders for the execution of thousands of Polish soldiers who were prisoners of war. The collection of Jews and placement into concentration camps came with the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Contract and his family had to stay without food and hide their real names for them to survive. Worship was conducted in hidden places where only a few members were allowed to know.
The holocaust was not limited to Germany and those areas it occupied. The Soviet Union also got a share of Holocaust but during the Second World War; Germans spearheaded the killing and displacement of Jews. The Holocaust wiped out most of the most educated as well as productive people in the western part of the Soviet Union Dobroszycki & Gurock, 2016) . The impact was a reduction of the Russian middle class. Most historians argued that millions of Soviet Jews perished during the Holocaust as the German army entered the Soviet Union in 1941.
The other view that Alexander holds is that despite Germany and the Soviet Union being antagonistic, the two nations had a hand in the challenges that faced Jews in Europe not only during the Second World War but also in years following the war. The rise of Stalin in the Soviet Union led to an increase in anti-Semitic views that led to the killings of thousands of Jews in the country especially in the 1950s ( Dobroszycki & Gurock, 2016) . Alexander Contract talks of the pogroms in the Soviet Union and asks the question of where Jews are safe if they had to deal with pogroms in the Soviet Union.
Stalin like Hitler conducted wholesale deportation as well as efforts at mass murder of the Jews living in the Soviet Union. This was formed by his anti-Semitic views that he held way before the start of the war. What is evident is that Stalin started with the recognition of Jews and even forming a Jews committee that was necessary for drumming up support for the USSR during the war ( Dumitru, 2016) . However, the same group he ordered to be formed was disbanded after it had achieved its objectives of getting the Jews to support the Soviet Union during the war.
When the war broke out and Germany invaded the Soviet Union and Poland, it was evident that the Jews’ fate was at the hands of the two leaders Stalin and Hitler. The concentration camps such as the Majdanek camp where contract was placed in Poland were used for extermination but he survived using his NKVD links and concealing his identity using a Russian name. He had the benefit of being able to speak in fluent Russian. He went into hiding to avoid the forceful recruitment into the army that was made mandatory for all Jews that were operating in Russia and Poland. One of his dire experiences was the escape from a camp using the concealed identity. Bribery was the order of the day for him and his family to get migration assistance as the migration policies under Stalin prohibited any Jews from moving without the approval of the communist government
Stalin’s perception was that Jews were traitors and despite Hitler killing them in large numbers, Stalin followed Hitler in turning against them and killing them in large numbers. The plot in the pogrom was to capture a considerable number of Jews and to transport them to some of the remote areas in the country such as Mongolia and Siberia. The traitor tag placed on Jews was the same as they had in Germany where they were accused of prospering at the expense of the German people. Stalin wanted to follow the strategy used by Germany where the Jews were accused of prospering at the expense of the German people.
The Doctors’ Plot is considered one of the plots that Stalin came up with after the end of the war. The plot facilitated the killing of many Jewish doctors operating in the Soviet Union. In order to drum up support for his radical views, Stalin had to come up with propaganda that the Jewish doctors had plans to kill some of the leading Kremlin leaders. This propaganda was aimed at turning the Soviet Union citizens against the Jews who were considered to have taken most of the middle-class jobs in the country. This led to the arrest and execution of Jewish intellectuals while others were captured and taken into camps. Despite the United Nations forming the state of Israel and Stalin supporting its formation, he continued his anti-Semitic views into the 1950s ( Dobroszycki & Gurock, 2016) . Stalin is, therefore, considered as one of the lunatic leaders as asserted by Alexander Contract as he secretly organized pogroms. However, Stalin did not get to the level of Hitler as the Soviet Union lacked the necessary techniques to conduct mass murders, unlike the Germans.
Conclusion
Alexander Contract provides a detailed account of the Holocaust and the role of Germany in fanning the mass murders. One can infer that Alexander would want the world to document the holocaust with the aim of using the past as a lesson of what can happen if some leaders are left to take over power. Some of the atrocities occur starting with the rise to power of ‘lunatic’ who use radical ideologies to turn a certain community against a minority group of people. As explained above, Hitler and Stalin used anti-Semitic arguments and ideologies as the foundation of the crimes against the Jews living in their countries. To explain why Contract thought of the two as ‘lunatics’ it is important to look at how they fostered nationalism of their people without involving the minority group: the Jews. Although the two did not start or invent anti-Semitic arguments, they only worked to escalating the notion to the extent of providing support to anyone who came up with a plan to remove the Jews out of their countries. Alexander Contract envisions a world where we understand the damaging effects of atrocities, and hence there is a smooth or positive coexistence among people from all races.
References
Dobroszycki, L., & Gurock, J. S. (2016). The Holocaust in the Soviet Union: Studies and Sources on the Destruction of the Jews in the Nazi-occupied Territories of the USSR, 1941-45: Studies and Sources on the Destruction of the Jews in the Nazi-occupied Territories of the USSR, 1941-45 . Routledge.
Dumitru, D. (2016). The state, antisemitism, and collaboration in the Holocaust: The Borderlands of Romania and the Soviet Union . Cambridge University Press.
Geissbühler, S. (Ed.). (2016). Romania and the Holocaust: Events Contexts Aftermath . Columbia University Press.
USC Shoah Foundation. (2010). Alexander Contract on Living in Peace [Video file]. Retrieved from https://sfi.usc.edu/video/alexander-contract-living-peace
