Empathy vs. Sympathy

I have learned that there is a difference between empathy and sympathy. I learned in class that empathy is the intellectual identification or vicarious experience of the feelings, thoughts, altitudes to another or the experience of understanding another person's condition from their perspective. I learned that sympathy is the feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune. It is possible to empathize with someone even though you have not experienced what they are going through because I can use my imagination and picture what it would be like. You have to put apart all of your own opinions and views on their situation to be able to fully empathize because you could possibly not agree with the circumstances. We did a worksheet that described we read about two communities that experienced moral decisions. One community people were conspiring to save Jews and the other community was killing Jews. The community that was killing Jews is not moral and I do not agree with it, nor have I ever experienced that but it is possible to empathize with. It is really hard to empathize with but I can put myself into the community that was killing jews' shoes and see where they are coming from. It is definitely not comfortable to empathize with them because I do not agree with it, but if I put aside my own opinions and realize their purpose behind it I can empathize with them. Being able to empathize is important for studying history because you need to be able to understand their position and why they made the decisions they did based upon their situation. It helps to be able to put yourself into their mind and understand.