The Power to Heal...

Essays in Remembrance…

The Power to Heal the World Requires Remembrance

by Joshua Rabanipour

“One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.”- Golda Meir. It is crucial to this generation and every generation after to understand what the Holocaust is and why it happened. Prejudice is a disease; while a cure may never be found, work can be done to decrease its impact.

The Holocaust, a genocide whose aim was to eliminate European Jewry, the disabled, Roma Gypsies and homosexuals, is a lesson for everyone to learn (Schwartz). By learning of victims’ lives and deaths, we bring them back to life through memory. Their legacy will teach an everlasting lesson to all. It will bring about our future, the potential of the human race. We must understand that the Holocaust is a part of everyone: Jew and gentile. Not one person believed that it was possible for Adolf Hitler to commit such crimes in the twentieth century, but it happened. In an era after the Enlightenment, an age of reason, how was a mass slaughter achievable? Holocaust deniers believe that the Holocaust is a myth and that something of such magnitude could not have occurred in a time after the Age of Reason. With all this in mind, Holocaust education is of paramount importance.

By spreading education and information about the Holocaust, we will achieve the “never again”. Never again refers to the idea that by no means will genocide ever be done in the world again. We are teaching this next generation about peace. A new peace will shape our world to love all. “Love thy neighbor like thy love yourself” (Artscroll Tanach, 283). A commandment from God in the Old Testament proves peace is achievable. Good and kind-hearted people do exist. For example, gentile neighbors of European Jews rescued Jews and they are another reason why we remember. They risked their lives and their families to keep others alive. Therefore, the Righteous Among the Nations will always be respected for achieving the nearly impossible; they should always be remembered in addition to the victims. These courageous, brave individuals give us a better view on human nature and show us that there will always be a small light to illuminate the darkness.

After 1945, those that survived and those that rescued the survivors believed that such a genocide could never occur again. There seemed to be an understanding that the world would not permit such an act of cruelty once more. However, the world has been blinded because there have been recent Holocausts in Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur. There are still millions of people being mistreated today because of their beliefs or culture. The Holocaust must be taught in every country in order to remind everyone that neither persecution, intolerance nor genocide is permissible. We must remember the evils that humans can achieve.  “We remember because it is an unthinkable scar on humanity. We need to understand what human beings are capable of”- Raye Farr (US Holocaust Memorial Museum). Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, were bystanders while Jews and others were being tortured and killed. The world must learn that silence is not the answer; by being silent, people are contributing to the torment of others. To stand up in the face of evil is to destroy evil itself. It is a moral test to defy injustice and hatred.

I have heard numerous Holocaust survivor stories throughout my life. The greatest lesson I have learned is that, “We are all survivors”. Without an ancestor, no one would be able to exist; everyone alive today is connected in this way. We are all family, the human race, not the human individual. At the worst times, we come together in harmony without any controversy over religious beliefs or any other factors that separate us. This moral should be taught to all generations, for we are one family. We are a people of many ethnicities and cultures, and I believe that any major incident reflects the faith in all of us.

In Darfur, Sudan, rebels demanded greater political and economic rights for black Darfurians from the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in Khartoum starting in 2003. The Janjaweed, a group of gunmen sent by the Arab Sudanese government, stormed black villages and killed civilians. This major genocide took the lives of around 350,000 human beings. Among the dead were men, women and children. These children were never able to live happily or even smile; they were frightened all of their lives. This is the Holocaust of today, an ethnic cleansing done by an Arab-dominant government to black Darfurians. George Spooner, an 83-year old Holocaust survivor, said, “History repeats itself” (St. Louis, Pupillo). What makes the situation in Darfur worse is that Chinese and Russian governments were not willing to go against Sudan because of wealth. While a ceasefire agreement ended the conflict, the legacy of hared and injustice lives on. This is not acceptable. People around the world, young and old alike, need to rally together to fight hatred, not to embrace it as inevitable. International, educational programs that don’t hold back the details of the full extent of the Holocaust need to be implemented in order to let the world know of the horrors that have happened—the unthinkable atrocities that should never occur again.

Terror, bullies, persecution and discrimination, these are the factors that bring about hate. To be prejudiced is to believe that one’s race or religion is superior to all. Nazi ideology was based solely on prejudice and the demonization of “inferior races”. “The personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew.” -Adolf Hitler (Hitler, 234). Evil begins with stereotypes, which leads to prejudice, hate, and ultimately, pure evil. Hate is learned knowledge, not an inherent knowledge. “We educate people to hate. Hate is not instinctual. Hate is taught, hate is learned”(The Anatomy of Hate). Today, social media helps young people learn about prejudice and bullying. People around the world are connected through the Internet and see others’ point of view. Using the Internet, people can learn about tolerance and that the world needs diversity. I am part of the Invisible Children, an organization created to bring young people of all ages together to fight against terror. Kony 2012 is a video made by Invisible Children in order to reveal to the world the horrors being done in Central Africa. We are trying to spread the message to the entire planet that genocide nor any form of discrimination is accepted.

The Holocaust will always be remembered, whether through the survivors’ stories, through the creation of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 1946, or through each and every single death of a human being during World War II. “Memory is what shapes us. Memory is what teaches us. We must understand that’s where our redemption is”- Estelle Laughlin (US Holocaust Memorial Museum). Remember what discrimination, prejudice and hate has done to the world. By remembering, we will leave the world a better place for our children and grandchildren and brighten the future of humanity.

Works Cited

"Erase Quotes." Famous Quotes at BrainyQuote. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/erase.html>.

Hitler, Adolf, and Ralph Manheim. Mein Kampf,. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943. Print.

Pupillo, Jessica. "Standing Against Hatred: Holocaust Museum's Mission Is to Prevent Prejudice, Persecution." St. Louis Sprout. St Louis. Web. 21 Jan. 2012. <http://www.stlsprout.com/places/standing-against-hatred-holocaust-museum-s-mission-is-to-prevent-prejudice-persecution>.

Schwartz, Terese. "Who Were the Five Million Non-Jewish Holocaust Victims?" Jewish Virtual Library. 2012. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. <http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/NonJewishVictims.html>.

The Anatomy of Hate: A Dialogue to Hope. Dir. Mike Ramsdell. DVD.

"Why We Remember the Holocaust." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. <http://www.ushmm.org/remembrance/dor/video/?content=whyweremember>.

Zlotowitz, Meir, and Nosson Scherman. ArtScroll Tanach Series / Meir Zlotowitz and Nosson Scherman. New York: Mesorah, 1976. Print.