Holocaust seminar continued...

            Our next speaker was a lady that works for Yad Vashem. She came to speak to us about the importance of educating ourselves about the holocaust because of the danger and threat of current holocaust deniers. Today, they don’t blatantly deny that the holocaust happened but moreover deny the extremity of the situation and blame Jews for exaggerating the truth in order to gain reparations and sympathy from the world. They call themselves, “Holocaust revisionists” and their goal is to downplay the magnitude of the holocaust and its effects on the Jewish people. These types of people immensely threaten the holocaust memory. As a Jew, I find it extremely important to make sure that the lessons and messages of the holocaust are never forgotten and although I can’t do that on a global level, I can at least make sure that my family and my kids are as knowledgeable and connected to the atrocity as I am.

After the speaker, we went to Yad Vashem, a holocaust memorial museum. Although I’ve been there before and most people on my program have been there four or five times, the museum is so big and complicated and no matter how many times you go, you can always learn more. I decided to go through the art gallery that exhibits survivors’ artwork as a way of expressing their trauma and loss from the Shoa.

After the museum, we each chose two different elective classes about the holocaust that interested us.  My first class was aimed to answer the question, “Is Israel a direct compensation from the holocaust?” Many people who are anti-Israel will argue that although the Jews went through the Holocaust, it’s not right that the Arabs should have to pay for the German’s crimes and that they should move the Jewish homeland to Uganda or Alaska! Of course the holocaust expedited the process of receiving a Jewish homeland in Israel, but our ties and connection to this land go as far back as King David in the ancient times.

        My next class was “Where was the world during the holocaust?” We studied different countries and their knowledge and involvement in the holocaust. There were many instances when America could have stepped in a saved hundreds of thousands of lives. For instance, when America found out about the exact location of Auschwitz, they could have bombed the railroad tracks that led to Auschwitz from Hungry. If they had done so, 100,000 Hungarian Jews would have been saved instead of shoved into gas chambers and murdered. But because Auschwitz wasn’t producing ammunition and supplies for the war, it wasn’t America’s first priority because it wasn’t directly helping their victory efforts. Even before the war, America had chances to save Jewish refugees. 939 rich Jews fled Germany on a boat called the St. Louis that was headed for Cuba. When they finally arrived, Cuba turned them down. Because Miami was pretty close, they headed for America but when they got there, American ships were sent out to make sure that none of them would enter America so instead, the St. Louis returned back to Europe that was quickly occupied by Nazi Germany and most of them were sent to death camps and murdered. We learned about the “bystander” effect and apathy for other peoples’ suffering. And after the class was riled up and angry because none of the world stepped in, our teacher asked the class to summarize what we knew about Darfur and the genocide that was happening just months ago. Out of twenty students, two or three tentatively raised their hands. Out of those three students, not even one had a detailed description about the conflict. The bystander effect is currently in motion all day, every day, our whole lives. If I could take one thing from my holocaust studies, it would be to play an active role in society and NOT ever be a bystander, even if the problem doesn’t hit close to home. Although the problems on the news are complicated and extremely overwhelming, we can never “get used” to other peoples suffering.