The Holocaust: Fading with Time
If there’s one thing history has taught society, it’s that humans can commit atrocities against their own. The Holocaust claimed the lives of 6 million Jews and 5 million civilians throughout WWII.
Yet, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany conducted a survey and found that many Americans are unaware of general facts concerning the Holocaust. Using information from over 11,000 interviews with people 18 to 39 years old, they learned 63 percent did not know 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. In addition, half of the respondents could not name at least one of the over 40,000 concentration camps and ghettos the Germans established during the war.
Learning about the Holocaust is important for all age groups, especially as January 2020 marked the 75th anniversary since the most notorious concentration camp, Auschwitz, was liberated. In an interview with NBC News, Greg Schneider, the executive vice president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, said valuable time to teach people about the Holocaust is lost as each day passes.
According to History.com, during the Holocaust, Germany transported people from containment zones known as “ghettos” to concentration camps in Poland towards the end of 1941. Children, elderly people and the sick were some of the first victims killed through many techniques.
The Germans also tortured and killed Jews and non-Jews through firing squads, mass gassings and starvation. Families were purposely torn apart, which left many children orphaned and others without most or all family members when the war ended.
It’s been 75 years since the Holocaust and several people and organizations are preserving its history. Gretchen Skidmore, the director of education initiatives at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, holds survivors’ stories to high regard. Skidmore said “eyewitness testimony is the most powerful tool educators can use.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s Echoes and Reflections program also provides educators with resources to teach their students not only about the Holocaust but also to prevent another tragedy like this.
“The lessons of the Holocaust are self-evident [and] this needs to be a systemic change. The Holocaust has been excised from many curricula in America and around the world,” said Rabbi Farb, the spiritual leader at Temple Emanuel in McAllen, Texas. “There are many resources that are accessible for people to learn more on their own, from films such as “Schindler’s List” [to] “Life is Beautiful” [or] books from victims and survivors such as the “Diary of Anne Frank.””
In the end, “those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it,” Farb said. “Remember that these are the stories of our neighbors. Hundreds and thousands of survivors [live among us.] This is not ancient history.”
