REMEMBERING

THE HOLOCAUST

And How it Could be Forgotten

Mankind must never Forget the Holocaust: At first this statement seems painfully overused, almost cliché, nothing more than a truism. It seems to be a statement that need not be made, as everyone knows about the holocaust, there is no threat that it could be possibly forgotten. It could not be lost, it is known to all. Why even make such a comment? It couldn’t be forgotten, and besides, the problem is past, the Holocaust is no longer a problem, why brood over it? But in actuality, this comment is important, is valid; as the kind of attitude just expressed could kill the memory of the Holocaust. Such memories could indeed be lost, with many threats to it just starting to show their head. Indeed, there are many ways that the Holocaust could be forgotten. We must remember the Holocaust; and we must make sure it never happens again.

One of the most common views that threatens the memory of the Holocaust is that "it couldn’t happen here," or "it was just the Nazis that could do such a thing." And while it is true that the Nazi party was almost entirely responsible for the tragedy, it was far from merely "a Nazi thing," or "a German thing." In fact, "although the Nazis established the death camps many nationalities were compliant in the holocaust, especially in Eastern Europe" (Rood 494). Indeed, it is absurd to think that only the Germans could be turned to such evil. It is not like the Germans have a special "evil gene" that the rest of the human race does not posses. If the German race could be brought to do such things, so could any other group of humans upon this Earth. In fact, America, Canada, and Britain the "heroes" of World War II, are not even completely blameless. This is not to say that these countries should not be thanked for helping to end such a horrid event, but they were far from perfect angel countries. America alone had it’s fair share of people who admired Hitler’s ways with the Jewish race and "despite press reports of Nazi oppression, there remained considerable anti-seminism in the United States. During the depression anti-semits such as Charles Coughlin, and Henry Ford had reinforced popular anti-semetic stereotypes" (Rood 495). It wasn’t even just a few select people that had such views either, as:

"Western Governments, including the that of the United States continually downplayed the Nazi oppression of Jews before World War II, and none of the democracies liberalized their immigration policies during the Depression to provide German and east European Jews with refuge" (Rood 495).

Such evidence as this shows that it could indeed happen here; and if one thinks about American History, it seems that to a certain extent, it has. At first this might seem absurd, as true, never in America has there been a killing of Millions of people merely due to race. But there has been something similar, something which the more one thinks about it, the more similar it seems. This would be the institution of Slavery. This event did occur here, and there is no denying it, as it remnants still haunt the United States. True, never in the United States was there an effort to totally destroy the African race, but the causes and ways of the Holocaust and Slavery are more similar than most people would like to think. Both were the result of Racial bias. Using racial superiority as a reason is easy, and humans like things which are easy, and thus just the like Nazis, "the South would be able to develop, as it did develop, the defensive doctrine of racial superiority”(Leckie 8). Slaves and Jews also received similar housing and treatment, except slaves were fed better as "to injure one’s bondsmen simply didn’t make economic sense"(Leckie 18) At first it might seem a good counter-argument to the Slavery idea would be that the entire world was in slavery at that time. Really though, this is not completely true, as

"by 1860 the European Colonizers"had also put the pernicious institution [of slavery] to the ban...by 1860 even the Russian Czar was contemplating freeing the serfs, so the only places in which men were owned by other men were Brazil, Cuba, and the American South" (Leckie 12).

What it comes down to on this is that it could indeed happen here, and by remembering the Holocaust we start to ensure that it doesn’t. For if such an event were to be forgotten people would not guard against it, and history could, and probably would repeat itself.

Another emerging threat to the remembrance of the Holocaust, or at least the accurate remembrance of the Holocaust is that the people of that time, the people of the Holocaust, the people of the 1940’s and 50’s, the people of World War II are starting to rapidly disappear. As these people start to disappear, so do the memories that they bring with them, the stories, the truth about what happened back in that time. Without actual people to attest to these events, without living evidence, such things as this often start to become more like myth than fact. As time passes on, this continues, eventually leaving the way open for doubt to seek into peoples minds about the events, for people to start questioning what exactly happened; it opens the way for the manipulating of the truth. Already such attempts at manipulating are becoming more frequent the most "famous" if one wishes to call it that being a pamphlet named 66 Questions and Answers about the ‘Holocaust’ published by "The Institute for Historical Review." (Which hasn’t really published anything else) As the last people that were there start to leave, such things as this shall become harder to disprove. But it must be remembered, to honor those not only that died, but those that stopped it. As it is put by one WII veteran :

"I just can't conceive of anyone not believing that these things happened. But I guess time has a way of altering history. The guys who actually witnessed these things are fast leaving the face of the planet. Soon there will be none of us left to give eyewitness accounts of what they saw. I salute the thousands and thousands of GIs and soldiers of other nations who gave their lives to put an end to this madness. I often wonder what they would think if they could awaken to see what I see around me. Would they think it was worth it? I certainly would not attempt to debate the reality of those times. It would be tantamount to arguing with someone who believed the earth is flat...Where do you even start to debate such a premise (Johnson )?

Perhaps the greatest threat to the Holocaust is that overtime, (again, partly because nobody alive actually was there.) it shall just be plain out forgotten. People will eventually plain out cease to care, writing it off as the past, writing it off as "a religious thing." However, it is/was much more than simply a "religious thing." It was a question of human life, life in general, not just the hatred between two separate religions. The Holocaust is not just the story of the Jews and the Aryan Nazis. Not that in any way, the six million Jewish lives lost in the holocaust were unimportant, but there were many others that died in it as well. In fact "Eleven million precious lives were lost during the Holocaust of World War II. Six million of these were Polish citizens. Half of these Polish citizens were non-Jews"( Schwartz). It is of the utmost importance that these people are remembered as well. As they too, were part of the Holocaust. They too, were oppressed, were killed. Perhaps if people see that it was not only one race, one people that were oppressed they shall not so quickly write it off, deny it, not care etc. It seems horrible that some would only care if more than just the Jewish were oppressed, but that is the way many people will think. But more than that, it is important to remember these people as well because

"While there is no argument that Hitler abhorred the Jews and caused almost six million to be ruthlessly killed, often non-Jewish victims are tragically forgotten from Holocaust remembrances. Eleven million precious human lives were lost during the Holocaust. Five million of these were non-Jewish. Three million were Polish Christians and Catholics. It would be very sad to forget even one precious life extinguished so ruthlessly. It would be a tragedy to forget five million." (Schwartz).

In the end there is many reasons to remember the Holocaust, to honor those who died, to honor those who fought to end it; to make sure it never happens again. And the way to make sure it never happens again is to remember. And it seems the way to remember, is to care. So, all it comes down to in the end is: We must remember the Holocaust.