What does Apartheid tell me about Human Rights?
Apartheid tells me that the people of South Africa didn't have any human rights.During Apartheid they had to carry around pass books for identification,these were made to regulate the movements of the blacks in urban areas, they had to carry these at all times, minorities couldn't run their own businesses,and they couldn't have a job or live in a "white" area.They also couldn't use the same bathroom,beaches, or schools and be in the same places as the whites.They were also separated into groups blacks,coloreds, and asians.This took away their human rights because they don't have freedom to do what they want and go where they want or even say what they want.Even when they protested they were put into jail and punished they didn't have equal rights to voice their opinions.They even had laws forbbiding colors to get married to whites.The government created laws that stripped the South Africans of all their human rights.
How does in relate to the holocaust?
Apartheid and the holocaust are similar in many ways.The South African and the jews were both empty of their identity.The jews had numbers for their identification while the South Africans had passbooks. The leaders of both Apartheid and the Holocaust both wanted control and would do anything to maintain it.They would punish or kill anyone that would go against their rules, but the leader of Apartheid probably wasn't as mad as Hitler.For example,one of the survivors of Apartheid told people about how his son died when acid was poured on him.Witnesses during the holocaust recall babies being shot or throw into the crematory and they were tortured and killed, people at the concentration camps would work them to death and they would only stay alive at the camps if they were healthy enough.The weak didn't survive.In my opinion I think that Apartheid in mild compared to the Holocaust.Victims of Apartheid weren't as scared to stand up for themselves as the victims of the Holocaust because the jews lived more in fear than the victims of Apartheid did.In both Apartheid and the Holocaust the government wanted to be superior to the minorites.
Did individuals matter?
Apartheid and the Holocaust didn't repect the individual rights of the minorities because to the government that really didn't matter.They cared more about control than people or their rights.It denys this principle completly with the pass books and all the restrictions.They should be able to do what ever they want and they should be able to go where ever they want.Not be restricted by laws made to make them feel inferior.
How does it make you feel?
Apartheid makes me feel mad because I don't understand how humans can treat other humans that way.Everybody's the same we all have faces and body parts and we all know how to talk, so why do other people think that they could set laws restricting other people just to gain superiority.I like the fact that the people of Apartheid stood up for themselves and decided to protest.They were put in jail, but they thought it was worth it.Nelson Mandela protested and was put in jail for 30 years he later on became president of South Africa because he decided to step up and stand up for their rights that they deserve.All the torture that the victims went through they didn't deserve it. Events like this one makes me happy to live in a day in age where I can do and say whatever I want.
How do you feel about the victims?
I feel that the victims did not deserve what happened to them.They didn't do anything wrong.They didn't commit a crime.They were discrimminated against for what they looked like and they were ripped away their rights.I feel bad for the victims because the unfair set of laws took away there rights.Some of the people in South Africa were the victims to unfair police harrasment or they weren't cared for right in the prisons.Mohapi told commision how it was like in the prisons.She said that in the prisons they didn't let her bathe or change her clothes and she also got head lice.None of the victims should've spent their lives this way.I feel really bad for the victims and i strongly believe that they didn't deserve these laws or actions against them.
