Also, Avi, we are told not to have mercy on idol worshippers even if they appear downtrodden or oppressed; mercy has its limits and while we were the victims of genocide, that does not stop the Torah from demanding that we wipe out amalek, 7 umos canaan etc..
The idea of feeling the suffering of the oppressed and remembering our own suffering is limited. I don’t like it when people equate the suffering of reshoim with, say, the holocaust or other calamities. We are not them. The erech of our lives is not the same, or even in the same universe, as others.