How odd would it be to grow up convinced that another person is of lesser value then you based on their ethnicity only to learn you are of the same ethnicity? Can your beliefs suddenly change so drastically?
This is exactly what happened to two Polish neo-Nazis who were childhood sweethearts and later became skinheads. They discovered their shocking family secret, that they are both Jewish, a few years ago after going through records at the Warsaw’s Jewish Historical Institute. Both their families had escaped Nazi Germany and hid their true identities in order to escape persecution.
Before they learned of their true roots, they both practiced the belief “that Jews were the biggest plague and the worst evil of this world".
They've now embraced their Jewish identity and are active in their local orthodox synagogue.
When I read this story I was struck with the obvious very deep lessons to be learned here. Not the least of which is that all people want basically the same thing, we just have differing ideas on how to get it. And who is to say that one idea can be judged as better ot more value than another?
Before these two ex-skinheads learned they were Jewish they would have never stepped into a synagogue and now they worship in one. The basic concepts of their belief system can not have drastically changed, they just focus them in a different direction within a different frame f reference. They are still the same people.
Plus, we can see how we are shaped by ideas and stereotypes. Now that they have learned they are Jewish, surely, they no longer believe “that Jews were the biggest plague and the worst evil of this world".
CNN did a documentary about Poles rediscovering their Jewish roots generations after their ancestors hid their religious identities to escape persecution during World War II. You can read more about it and watch excerpts from the documentary on CNN.
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