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When I visited the Holocaust
Museum in Washington D.C., in February of 2000, the exhibit that most
struck me was a collection of millions of shoes from the death camps. The
sheer number and varying styles of the shoes bewildered me: there were
fancy high-heeled womens' shoes, threadbare boots, and shoes from every
socioeconomic level and of every size. Seeing the shoes in person made the
event of the Holocaust all the more real because right before my very own
eyes was physical proof of the victims: their possessions. Despite the
shoes' individuality, all of them had a uniform dusty brownish
appearance,which to me seemed symbolic of the identical tragic fate that
all. of the victims from diverse backgrounds suffered. Moreover, the shoes
had not been treated well, but had been carelessly thrown into lofty,
disordered piles, illustrating the complete disrespect and hatred that the
Nazis had for the Jews. This exhibit elucidated to me the impact on the
Holocaust's victims and their humanity more than hearing the numbers
killed or even seeing pictures of the victims. Writer A. Alvarez notes
that the most critical aspect of the Holocaust is that "when suffering is
mass-produced[...] nothing remains -- certainly no values, no humanity"
(Alvarez 56). The eleven million people, including six million Jews, were
nameless to their murderers, only identified by numbers. This is why we
must remember the Holocaust: to learn the names and the personal pain that
the individual victims suffered. They must not remain nameless any longer,
and we must educate present and future generation about the Holocaust and
its victims, honoring the victims' existence and instilling them with
dignity that they fully deserve.
Emil Fackeneim said that for Jews to forget Hitler's victims would be to
grant him a "posthumous victory" (qtd in Novick 281). A disturbing fact is
that according to a poll on the eve of the opening of the Washington
Holocaust Museum in 1993, 22% of the public doubted that the Holocaust had
ever occurred (Novick 271). The fact that such a climacteric event of our
history is not being taught is disconcerting, and we must honor the
victims with respect by learning not only the facts of the Holocaust but
also personal stories. As professor Mordecai Paldiel states, "The memory
of the Holocaust will never fade or disappear. The atrocities are well
documented and the documents well preserved" (Paldiel xiii). Nevertheless,
the facts are not enough to do justice to the victims. Consequently,
students must read survivors' accounts, which would allow them to
empathize with the victims and consider the victims true people instead of
a mass of indistinguishable beings. The victims had unique identities:
they were artists and intellectuals, revolutionaries and conservatives,
leaders and followers, they had hobbies, passions, families and friends,
and each had a distinct outlook on life and future dreams and goals.
Students should also read Holocaust literature in order to learn the
individual impact on the victims. Words are crucial because they describe
an image but still give the reader the freedom to interpret the words as
he or she desires. In contrast, movies tell the viewer how to interpret
events, which may not be appropriate for the Holocaust. In response to the
movie "Schindler's List," critics thought that "Spielberg had made a
`feel-good entertainment about the ultimate feelbad experience of the 20th
century."' (Novick 214). Hollywood has the tendency to glamorize events,
which is demeaning to the Holocaust because it belittles it as a form of
entertainment. In addition, the Holocaust affected each of its victims in
a personal way, and it is important to learn the unique meaning that the
Holocaust had for its victims and survivors. Movies tend to universalize
everything, which debases the personal quality of the Holocaust. Professor
Lawrence Langer agrees, "How much darkness must we acknowledge before we
will be able to confess that the Holocaust story cannot be told in terms
of heroic dignity, moral courage, and the triumph of the human spirit in
adversity?"(Langer 158). The moral lessons characteristic of movies to not
apply to the Holocaust because the Holocaust should be taught as a
horrific, immoral event.
What I can do as a student to prevent such an event from reoccurring is to
embrace diversity. Ignorance of people of different races
or ethnic backgrounds breeds fear, and as has been illustrated repeatedly
in the world's past, fear provokes violence. America is a haven for people
of bountiful differences and in order to avoid strife we must celebrate
these differences by learning about a variety of cultures and fusing
aspects of our culture with that of other countries-in food or music, for
instance. Additionally, I believe that in almost any situation, violence
should be a last resort and that all disputes should be attempted to be
solved peacefully first. As historian Michael Burleigh notes, "The Nazi
empire was created by violence, lived by violence and was destroyed by violence"
(Burleigh 481). Tyrants are typically born out of war, such as
Hitler who was dissatisfied with the Treaty of Versailles
after World War I and thereafter desired to unite Germany and dominate
Europe and the world. Thus, if we can get at the root of violence and war,
we may prevent some malicious leaders like Hitler from being thrown over
the edge and therefore save the lives of millions of future victims.
Furthermore, we must teach students to always preserve their own values
and not let others or disastrous events impede on their judgment. After
the destruction of Germany and German morale by World War I and the impact
of the Great Depression, the Germans were desperate for change and
subsequently blindly accepted Hitler as their leader, endowing him with
unfathomable power. We must teach students to never succumb completely to
others' authority and to peacefully protest when they disagree. Hitler
only had a small group of follower; at first, but thenceforth thousands of
people submitted to him. If these individuals had asserted their free
will, Hitler may not have been able to accomplish the extermination of
eleven million individuals.
Atticus Finch, the principled father in Harper Lee's To Kill a
Mockingbird, comments to his children, "You never really know a man until
you stand in his shoes and walk around in them"(Lee 279). Before I saw the
shoes of the victims, I never completely understood their pain because I
had thought of the Holocaust as affecting a mass of people in the same
way, and did not consider the victims as individuals with unique feelings,
fears, and aspirations. I believe that students should be taught the
points of view of the Holocaust victims so that we may honor those
inculpable individuals who endured the ultimate horror ever to occur on
this earth.
Bibliography
Alvarez, A. Beyond All This Fiddle. London: Penguin, 1968.
Burleigh, Michael. The Third Reich: A New History. New York: Hill and
Wang, 2000.
Langer, Lawrence.
Admitting the Holocaust. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Warner, 1960.
Novick, Peter. The Holocaust in American Life. New York: Houghton Mifflin,
1999.
Paldeil, Mordecai. Saving the Jews. Maryland: Schreiber Publishing, 2000.
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