The Black Book of Communism – pg 1-15

Week 1

For the first week of class, the reading that most struck me was the novel, The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, and Repression. Many different discussions points were debated in the first fifteen pages and some of them brought up individual questions of their own that made me think. One example of a question raised by the text is, What should be weighed first: natural laws or official institutions? On page three in the second paragraph, the author asserts that the crimes of Communism were carried out under the regimes official institutions. Therefore, one could argue that Communism did not commit any crimes. Although almost 100 million deaths occurred under the Communism’s regime, were they illegal? My opinion is that natural laws should always come first over official institutions because each person deserves their individual rights and should never have to live in fear. Of course, the argument could be made that without institutions, there would be anarchy and we would need institutions in order to have natural laws. There must be a perfect combination of both in order for there the be order and individual happiness, but too much of either one could be catastrophic.

Another example, on page one, in the last paragraph, the author lists out several different war crimes that have occurred throughout history. The last war crime he states is, “Even Switzerland has recently been embroiled in a scandal in its role in administering gold stolen by the Nazis from exterminated Jews,” but then the author adds, “although the country’s behavior is not on the same level as genocide.” This ending line made me question to what extent a country should be held accountable for the actions. While Switzerland did not carry out these horrific crimes, should being complicit with these actions make Switzerland just as responsible? The author seemed to say no, by the phrasing of the statement, but I’ve always believed that someone who sees a crime and doesn’t report it should be just as responsible. However, Switzerland did not commit any types of crimes against humanity that Germany did, so why should they be held just as accountable?

These conflicting questions have given me insight as to what topics will be discussed in class, and how it will challenge me and force me to understand both sides of an argument. I am looking forward to debating more in depth topics throughout the semester!