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A Letter to A Survivor
November 4, 2007
Dear Mom,
You are a Survivor, and I am now a grown woman.
I would really like to know your story.
I can carry it and others’ forward to help make sure the Holocaust never happens again. But so many years later, you’re still the same woman. You still think of the practical things of life and you still refuse to look back.
Sixty-two years later, our family only knows bits and pieces about the horrors of what your family went through – the fact that you lost your sister, aunts uncles, cousins.. You just don’t talk about the anguish of facing death everyday, the curfews, losing your home, being denied entrance to schools, even losing your pets or about the death camps. Yet, I believe that the world has learned more about tolerance not just from history books, but also from the individual, personal stories of real people who were victims of the deepest hatred and what can never be repeated in the world. You are re 84 years old. So, now, Mom, it’s time for you to tell your story.
I would like to be able to say that the Holocaust could never happen again, but, I’m not sure that’s true. The state-sponsored hatred instilled in regular people against their neighbors by the Nazis – the boycotting, the Night of Broken Glass, The Nuremburg Laws – were the results of deep prejudice and fear (“An Introduction to the Holocaust,” Kristallnacht”). Six million Jews (and many millions of others) were slaughtered (“An Introduction to the Holocaust”). These facts are part of our history. But the most powerful facts are those told on a personal level. No matter how many museums I visit or books I read, it is the horrific tales of average people that were victimized and killed that are the most haunting. It was Primo Levi, a Survivor, scientist and writer who said,” Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous is the common man.” (Palmer 855-856.) We know that it is indifference that is the greatest threat to a humane society.
When I saw all of the shoes piled up in the National Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. I could imagine the terrified people wearing them before the soldiers forced them to take them off and go to the gas chamber. Yet, we have learned that hatred blinded Germans to the fact that Jews were human beings Prejudice allowed them to ignore the pain and humiliation of the individuals they imprisoned, stripped of their human dignity and murdered. It is the stories of real people that bring the individuals back into focus, and make their humanity stark and real. And it is our commitment to teaching tolerance and respect that helps us cling to hope for our future. But the Holocaust happened so long ago in such a different part of the world that it is all too easy for us to dismiss it as something that happened once and could never happen again.
We do know the systematic propaganda campaign of the Nazis was alarmingly effective. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels was chillingly cunning and immensely capable of convincing people of the dangers of Jews, putting out movies such as The Eternal Jew, a film comparing Jews to plague carrying rats, and hanging posters containing false information that claimed to prove the superiority of Hitler’s ideal Aryan race. Goebbel’s successful machinations show how easy it is to make people afraid of other people. Surely there were many who easily caved in to such influences, but I do know that there were also many who resisted and fought.
The horrors of Nazi Germany can be taught in textbooks and shown in films, but the more powerful human stories are what keep the memories truly alive. It is the testimony of the Survivors that is the most powerful educational tool. Just as the Japanese removed the Rape of Nanking from school textbooks, any dictatorial or belligerent government could wipe the Holocaust from our institutional memory.
It is the family that is the most fundamental unit of society and the foundation of the community. It is the family, our family that can carry on tradition and a legacy to do our part in preventing another Holocaust. And now in our family, there is some urgency in the matter. Just like hundreds of thousands of other survivors, you have a story to tell. I feel it is now the next generation’s duty to teach others about this disaster to prevent past intolerance and hatred from being perpetuated. Please don’t think of me as your inquisitive daughter who focuses too much on the past. It is our business; the world needs to hear your story, as it so desperately needs to be constantly reminded of what you and so many millions of others went through. Just as the common person is “more dangerous” than history’s infamous monsters, he or she is also infinitely more powerful in preventing such monsters from arising. The lessons of the Holocaust teach us that tolerance and respect help assure the dignity of individuals. We must keep the Holocaust in our consciences to prevent it from happening again, and you have the power to aid in that project. So please, Mom, share your story. Person to person, family to family, it is the human truths that persevere and go on to affect and inspire future generations to teach understanding…..
When you are ready, I am here.
Greta Brewer
Vice President of Education,
NEXT GENERATIONS
NEXT GENERATIONS is under the auspices of LEAH, League for Educational Awareness of the Holocaust.
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