Since the Nazi concentration camps were liberated in 1945, correlational events have taken place, including acts against humanity, terrorism, human rights violations and other genocides witnessed around the world. Even more jarring is the alarming rise of antisemitism and hate toward Jewish people.
Where does hate come from? In 2018, a PEW study interviewed 1,350 Americans and found that 49% could not name a concentration camp, 40% of Millennials never learned that 6 million Jews perished and 67% never heard of Auschwitz. Shockingly, 22% of millennials never heard of the Holocaust with 50% not knowing it targeted Jews.
As time passes, so do the oral stories of actual participants of extraordinary events, like the Holocaust. And now, on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we find it prudent at this juncture to educate.
First, the Holocaust, a Greek word that literally translates to sacrifice by fire, was state-sponsored genocide that killed millions of Jews, handicapped, gypsies (Roma), elderly, children, homosexuals, political dissidents, Jehovah Witnesses and many others persecuted by the Nazis, including Catholics, like myself.
So many were killed that if the masses held a moment of silence for every victim of the Holocaust, there would be 11.5 years of quiet time; pure silence.
It was megalomaniacs like Hitler and his henchmen that rose to power in 1933, which led to sweeping reform, primarily persecuting Jews. The Nazis sent German Jurists to the America to research Jim Crow legislation that established the first laws against Jews, most notable among them were the Nuremberg Laws.
Then came more decrees/regulations, Kristallnacht, resettlements, the establishment of ghettos, pogroms and the Einsatzgruppen with their heinous death by bullets. The majority of killings occurred from 1941 and 1945, with every intent of annihilating Jews, with the establishment of 44,000 incarceration sites, including labor camps, detention centers and killing areas that came from the Wannsee Conference and the implementation of the Final Solution.
The German people weren’t born to hate, they learned to hate via classical conditioning, conformity, complacency and categorization. The Nazis were independent in their actions, complicit in nature, obedient to authority and were never subjected to judicial reviews, which is why it’s so important to never forget!
We have an estimated 200,000 survivors left worldwide, as numbers continue to dwindle. Arizona is home to a large contingency of Holocaust survivors; an estimated 70, in total. Our oldest is set to turn 100, while our youngest is 80, and about 40% of our survivors were teenagers, only in their adolescence, when their normalcy and innocence were stripped.
These survivors have living memory of the event; through retrieval cues, they recall and relive their true personal narrative of traumatic experiences, while making a powerful emotional connection, with whoever listens.
In December, Holocaust survivor, Rebecca Siegel, 96, shared her experiences at Westerbork Transit Camp and Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. She also reminisced about her childhood playmate, Anne Frank, with Grand Canyon University’s cast and crew of the “Diary of Anne Frank.”
As time fleets, so do our aging survivors, and it’s these stories of the Holocaust that should never be forgotten; lest we forget. As we observe this day designated by the U.N. as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, it’s important to remember that 80 years ago, Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps were liberated. Please don’t forget!
Editor’s note: Anthony D. Fusco Jr., M.Ed., M.S. is associate director of education for the Arizona Jewish Historical Society – Hilton Family Holocaust Education Center. Please send your comments about this submission to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
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