Holocaust Denial = Personal Rage Within

Nothing upsets me more than people who think the Holocaust never happened, or that it was not a big deal. Recently, three Austrian teenagers were found guilty of a Nazi camp attack they committed last year. "The teenagers, none of whom were previously known to police, fired compressed air rifles, injuring two visitors, made Nazi-style salutes and shouted slogans like "Heil Hitler" and "Sieg Heil," according to witnesses." This story is found on Nine News, a European news station. (http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8174304) They did this at a commemoration service at the previous concentration camp of Ebensee. This is outrageous, because these people survived this horrible tradgedy, then had to deal with being shot at by immature, young adults. These particular youths are sentenced up to six months in prison for the crimes they committed. This sort of thing completely upsets me not only because that this is still a problem since the Holocaust, but also because I'm Jewish. Millions of people of my bloodline and faith died for no reason at all, and this is a fact. I have family members who died in this mass extermination, so it really hits home when anyone trys to deny it. There are too many millions of pictures, stories, and first hand accounts of what happened for it to be fake, or also for anyone to deny that it happened. Holocaust deniers are usually anti-semite because they hate Jews, so to further spread their hate, they will say the Holocaust never happened. 


Dante never really addresses the particular hate for a race of people, or the denial of something. On a related note, Nazi's would be located in Circle Seven, Round One, because they were violent against fellow man. Holocaust deniers on the other hand, do not fit into any of the circles of Hell. This is unique of our modern society; to deny something that actually happened. The circle of Hell that would most closely relate to Holocaust deniers would be Circle Five (anger) because by denying the Holocaust, they are showing hate and anger towards the Jewish people. If Dante had known about the Holocaust deniers, he would have included another circle of Hell; those who deny the absolute truth. Dante would agree with me about grouping them closely to Circle Five, and to punish these people. In the Inferno, Circle Seven contains Blasphemers and Dante punishes them because they deny the truth of God; so why not punish an entire group of people who deny truth?


The song, Never Again, by Disturbed fit my topic. This song calls out Holocaust deniers by the lyrics,
"You dare to tell me that there never was a Holocaust?
You think that history will leave the memory lost?" These lyrics are true; history itself will never forget the Holocaust, and no one will ever forget what happened to those people because of it's impact on millions of lives. 

Song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfPgE7hApgw

Lyrics -http://www.elyrics.net/read/d/disturbed-lyrics/never-again-lyrics.html

The Constant Struggles In Circle Four

Thus we descended the dark scarp of Hell
to which all the evil of the Universe
comes home at last, into the Fourth Great Circle


and ledge of the abyss. O Holy Justice,
who could relate the agonies I saw!
What guilt is man that he can come to this?


Just as the surge Charybdis hurls to sea
crashes and breaks upon its countersurge,
so these shades dance and crash eternally.


Here, too, I saw a nation of lost souls,
far more than were above: they strained their chests
against enormous weights, and with mad howls


rolled them at one another. Then in haste
they rolled them back, one party shouting out:
"Why do you hoard? and the other: "Why do you waste?"


So back around that ring they puff and blow,
each faction to its course, until they reach
opposite sides, and screaming as they go


the madmen turn and start their weights again
to crash against the maniacs. And I,
watching, felt my heart contract with pain.


I chose these lines from Circle Four, because they reveal a theme of a strong sense of struggle between the Hoarders and the Wasters. When coming into this circle, Dante describes the circle as a dark Hell where all of the evil in the universe comes together on the ledge of the abyss. This abyss, could also represent the universe, because the universe itself is infinite and dark. So, in a way, this "evil" is gathering at a point of no return. When Dante sees this part of Hell, his mood is shown when he says, "O Holy Justice, / who could relate to the agonies I saw! / What guilt is man that he can come to this?"(52) Dante shows fearfulness, as well as questioning himself for what he is actually seeing. He ponders what man could have possibly done to end up in this place, and he thinks that no one would be able to relate to him. These are the first signs of Dante's internal struggle within himself. Since Dante is a poet, he must have been a fan of the ancient poet, Homer, who wrote, The Odyssey. Dante looks to Homer's work, because Dante mentions Charybdis (a great sea monster) in the Fourth Circle. Charybdis is portrayed in Homer's poem when she fights against Odysseus and his men. Dante compares Charybdis, and her constant warring of the sea, to the fight between the Hoarders and the Wasters. This further gives the Circle theme of struggle because of the mentioning of Charybdis by Dante.


After Charybdis, Dante states the struggles of the Hoarders and Wasters as well as within himself. He first depicts the souls by saying, "they strained their chests / against enormous weights, and with mad howls / rolled them at one another." (53) By witnessing this, Dante states not only were the souls in a constant struggle against themselves by being encumbered by their enormous weights, but they were also in fights with each other. What is also interesting, is that both opposing sides question each other by one shouting, "Why do you hoard?" and the other: "Why do you waste," (53) and this is interesting, because they never fully answer each other's question. This gives sense that there is internal struggle within because they can not admit why they hoard or waste. Overall, they are fighting with dead weights they have been burdened with in Hell, having an eternal struggle within themselves of not answering the question of why they hoard or waste, and also physical struggles with the opposing side. Dante also has his own personal struggle, when he mentions, "And I, / watching, felt my heart contract with pain." (53) Dante wants to be able to do something for the souls because he is saddened he can only watch at their dismay. Dante suffers along with the Hoarders and Wasters because he is also dealing with his own personal struggle of just having to stand by, and not by being able to help any soul he encounters in his trip through Hell.

The Gluttons

I personally think Dante's portayal of the Glutton's punishment is somewhat harsh, but at the same time, true of who the souls actually are. This circle of Hell has great use of diction to convey to the reader the sense of being there. The lines, "Huge hailstones, dirty water, and black snow/pour from the dismal air to putrefy/the putrid slush that waits for them below," (45) put a picture in the mind that this place is truly one of filth and inclimate weather. The diction has a sense of a "cold" feeling from the words chosen such as hailstones, black snow, and purtid slush. The use of the element of "cold" is probably used to show the opposite of what the Gluttons felt in life. In life, from eating food and drinking, they had a feeling of being happy and warm. However, in death, their souls are eternally cold. The Gluttons are also portrayed as swollen and obscene in death, just as they were in life. 


The souls damned to this place are here, because they had made no use of God's gifts, and instead, only wasted and wallowed in food and drink. To be gluttonous, is to be indulging in excess of something; which is considered a sin. They prouduced nothing but garbage and had a warm feeling from the food they ate in life, so the contrapasso is that they have to lie in eternity in the "garbage" they once were producing as well as being soul-shattering cold. When Dante recongnizes Ciacco in this circle, Ciacco says, "gluttony was my offense, and for it/ I lie here rotting like a swollen log," (46) which shows the contrapasso that in life he was swollen with gluttony and because of it he is swollen and rotting in death. Not only do the tortured souls have to lie in the putrid slush in the cold, but the three-headed Hell dog, Cerberus, slavers over them as the they did in life over food. He also rips apart any foolish soul who tries to get up out of the rotting slush.