Beware of spoilers inside
A film released in 2008, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" tells a tragic story in Nazi Germany: the Bruno family, an eight-year-old boy, was relocated from Berlin to the countryside following an order from his father, a Nazi officer. Bruno, who lost his friends, quickly became interested in the "farm" (concentration camp) near his new home, where a group of people in "striped pajamas" (prison uniforms) were busy all day. Bruno secretly met Schmoor, a boy of the same age on the other side of the barbed wire, and became friends. One day Bruno decided to go to the other side of the barbed wire in order to meet Schmoor's father. Putting on his striped pajamas, Bruno entered the camp and was eventually sent to the crowded gas chambers as a Jew. The film came to an abrupt end like Bruno's life, leaving the audience with infinite reverie.
The most touching and impressive scene in the film is the scene where Bruno, who puts on his "striped pajamas", gets into the fence door: two eight-year-old boys hold hands, and their pure eyes are full of surprise and excitement. Knowing nothing of the impending danger... Maybe Bruno's death will make his father, a Nazi officer, realize that all men are created equal, and that the only difference between those inside and outside the camps may be the striped pajamas. But power has ruthlessly and arbitrarily seized the equally precious lives of others.
We can't help but go back to the programmatic documents of Nazi Germany during World War II. What kind of statute could give a government such great and unrestricted power? On what grounds can they take other people's lives at will?
The Twenty-Five-Point Program, formulated and published in February 1920, is the programmatic document of the German National Socialist German Workers' Party and the guideline for the behavior of the Nazis. There are many shocking statements that contain radical and nationalist ideas:
"Article 2, we demand that the German nation should have equal rights with other nations, and that the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Saint-Germain should be abrogated."
"Article 4: Only German compatriots can qualify as German citizens; anyone of German national blood, regardless of their occupation, can be German nationals. Therefore, Jews cannot be German nationals."
"Article 7, we demand that the state should provide its citizens with work and life as its primary task. If the state cannot support its entire population, it should expel foreigners (non-German citizens) from the German border."
"Article 8, prohibiting non-Germans from entering Germany. We demand that all non-Germans who entered Germany after August 2, 1914, be expelled."
"Article 9: All German citizens shall enjoy equal rights and duties."
It can be seen that in the ruling concept of Nazi Germany, only the interests of the country and its own nation are the most important and should be protected. However, overly safeguarding one's own interests will inevitably damage the legitimate rights and interests of others. They were called to allegiance to their country and their nation, and they were educated to be nationalists who hated foreigners. Therefore, they can only see the harm that foreign nations have brought to them and their occupation of their own employment opportunities, but they ignore the vigor and vitality that foreign nations bring to their country. In any case, extreme thoughts that lack the ability of dialectical thinking will cause huge damage in many aspects.
"Article 25, we demand the establishment of a strong centralized government within the federation in order to realize all that the party advocates; the central and congress shall have absolute authority over the whole and its various organs; in order to implement the promulgation of the federation Laws of various professions should be created.”
In this program, we do not see clear restrictions on state institutions and guarantees of people's rights. In this totalitarian government, the party's proposition is absolute authority, an inviolable order. Such an undemocratic dictatorship, when it comes to the attack on a part of the masses, no one can stand up and raise a voice of opposition. This will lead to the tyranny of some people, which will cause losses to the safety of their lives and property. A country can obtain long-term stability and happiness of the country as a whole only if it tries its best to protect the basic rights of everyone living in the four borders.
I think that finding a balance between the power of one's own nation and the common rights of all ethnic groups, and finding a balance between safeguarding human rights and state power, is the fundamental solution to a country's long-term stability. The rut of history has left an indelible mark in the long road of time. Comparing the past and the present, looking at history and not forgetting the lessons from the past, we can make decisions as geographically as possible under the promptings of those hidden pains, and protect as many people as possible without harming them.
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