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Holocaust Pause
June 10, 2007
“In which camp are the people who were sent to the left?” the boy asks the German Gypsy. With a bellowing satanic laugh the Gypsy replies: In den himmel-lager mein leiber!” (In the heavenly camp, my darling.)
As a teacher, I have taught about the Holocaust for about ten years. I have seen dramatic shifts in my students’ attitudes and orientations toward learning about it. I recall,that years ago, my students approached the subject with a kind of inbred awe, reverence, seriousness and a cautiousness that bordered on nervousness. They handled the topic gingerly, as if it could shatter. I remember thinking and still do that human atrocities deserve reverential responses. However, I also believe the perceived sanctity of the Holocaust should not impede the teaching of its history being learned, truly investigated, challenged and understood. Awe can be the enemy of inquiry.
As further evidence of what can be labeled Holocaust-awe, through the years I have arranged for survivors to come and to speak to high school students. After the survivors would speak, I would need to prod the students to ask questions. “You don’t have to be shy; these survivors have lived through more than answering your questions”, I used to say. Usually that was all that was needed to open the floodgate of questions. At the time, I was struck by the kinds of questions and the amount of questioning. Today, in hindsight, I am struck by the pause that preceded my prompts.
Today’s students tend to approach the Holocaust without the pause. There does not seem to be any veneration. The Holocaust is, for them interesting but not awesome. An example of this lack of reverence was the desire of my students to play a game of Jeopardy to review the information that was learned. The students wanted to set up teams with Reese’s Pieces as the reward for the winning team. “The name of the gas used to asphyxiate victims at Auschwitz.” “What is Zyklon B?” was the 100 point answer. This trivialization of the Holocaust hurt me, but I decided to play along and keep my reactions hidden, so as to not quell their enthusiasm. I felt that education was occurring and that learning about the Holocaust was a better choice than allowing ignorance. But, where I once worried about the sanctification of the Holocaust stifling learning, I now had replaced that concern with the worry of trivialization of the Holocaust impeding its understanding. Seeming to underscore the need for this concern we read in the press soon afterward that in Britain, Prince Harry had donned a swastika for a fancy dress party and then apologized. His words revealed a striking lack of insight,” I am sorry if I have caused any offence.” His choice of attire came shortly after the BBC did a survey and found that nearly half of the respondents had never heard of Auschwitz.! …It was more than sixty years ago. People say strange things to escape past guilt. A popular tactic has been to complain and say” we are weary of thinking, preaching, teaching and hearing about the Holocaust. History is scarred with many holocausts. The vow “Never again Auschwitz !” has become one cry among many…..” “It’s hard to say anything new about this, isn’t it?”
Today, to my dismay, several of the Holocaust writers I most admire are using the term “Holocaust Fatigue.” I truly was disappointed when I heard Thane Rosenbaum, Rex Bloomstein, and Michael Blumenthal use this term. “Fatigue” is defined in my dictionary as “the temporary inability to respond to a situation or perform a function because of overexposure.” People complain that the Holocaust has been perpetually rammed down their throats by teachers and administrators at every turn. But many of those who complain of this fatigue have never read Elie Weisel’s Night , the classic and fundamental memoir of the Holocaust. They look at me with blank stares when I mention Julius Streicher- the infamous SS henchman and sadist who was the essential spirit behind Kristallnacht and a formidable presence in Nazi attacks on Jews and Jewish businesses. Perhaps, the cure for fatigue is curiosity. Read, ask questions, and search for ways not to reenact the dark past by creating new genocides. Rather than complain about Holocaust fatigue, shouldn’t we be concerned about the moral numbness that surrounds us
NO…The Holocaust is a subject like no other. It puts tremendous demands upon us intellectually, challenging us to develop and draw upon knowledge in history, sociology, psychology, philosophy, politics and theology, covering centuries of history drawn from a dozen nations. But the study of the Holocaust is also extraordinarily challenging because of the additional emotional and moral demands it makes on us. Let us pause and take the time and energy needed to reflect on what man did to man.
Greta Brewer
Vice President of Education,
NEXT GENERATION
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