Living in the COVID-19 World and Beyond #18: The Holocaust

It seems like I have always known about the Holocaust.   I knew that 6 million Jews were senselessly killed.  I knew it happened in the context of World War II.   I knew that Jews were blamed for economic problems and deemed an inferior race.   I read The Diary of Anne Frank, the books by Elie Wiesel, and more.  I watched movies that depicted various aspects of the Holocaust – insights into the leaders who perpetuated the atrocities, stories of righteous Gentiles, and the heroism of Jewish resistance fighters.   I’m a Jew and I knew my Holocaust history.

January 27th was International Holocaust Remembrance Day.    It is an event that I have never actively acknowledged.   It comes and it passes.   

This year, I was asked to facilitate a public panel discussion of Holocaust survivors and children of Holocaust survivors sponsored by a number of local organizations.   I readily agreed without really thinking about what it would be like.   Afterall, I have facilitated hundreds if not thousands of discussions on challenging questions in the past.   This was just another panel.

I was wrong.

As part of this International Holocaust Remembrance Day program attendees were encouraged to watch a movie, Final Account.   This documentary consists of interviews with normal German citizens who were teenagers and young adults during the Holocaust and were then interviewed in their 70’s and 80’s.   They were asked questions like: what it was your life back then?   What did you know about what was going on?   What did you think and feel about it?    And what do you think and feel about it now?    The movie was difficult to watch.  (I happened to watch it on the same day that 4 Jews were held hostage at a synagogue in Texas.)   I encourage everyone to watch the full documentary, and its available on Netflix.

At the event, we showed a few clips from the documentary and then I facilitated the panel – 2 Holocaust survivors and 2 children of Holocaust survivors.   I asked them to each share their personal or their family’s experience of the Holocaust.   It was very powerful to hear their direct testimony face-to-face (albeit virtually).  In spite of what I wrote in the opening paragraph above, I don’t remember ever having a direct conversation with a Holocaust survivor, being able to ask them questions, and to hear their stories.   And then asked them for their reactions to the documentary and what lessons they could extract from the documentary and their own experiences for the challenges that we face today.   I listened intently to every word that they said.

My key take-away from the documentary and listening to the survivors was about the extent and depth of complicity and denial that typical German citizens had about what was going on during the Holocaust.   It makes me ask the question: where am I complicit and in denial about injustice today?   Injustice seems to be everywhere – racial injustice, climate injustice, systematic mistreatment of people based on religion and ethnicity, and the list goes on.   I think this is an important question for all of us.  If we can each be more aware, notice injustice wherever it exists, and speak up and act against each injustice that we see, there will be a much-reduced likelihood that we will ever experience anything like the Holocaust ever again.