What's the difference between compassion and empathy?

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines compassion as "sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it". It defines empathy as "the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines compassion as "sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it". It defines empathy as "the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner".

In the easiest terms: Compassion is a feeling where empathy is understanding. You have to have compassion in order to have empathy, imo. That's just my thoughts, and probably NBA :).

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.