One of the greatest privileges I had while I was in school in Germany was listening to Holocaust survivors, live on stage, speak about their and their parents experiences.
When learning about the Nazi time in history class I always had some amount of emotional distance between me and the subject.
Hearing survivors' accounts made away with that. That was when I, as a German(who had a grand-grandfather who fought for the Nazis), felt deep genuine regret and sorrow for the actions(or inaction) of my ancestors.
I worry what will happen when the last survivor dies.
In kindergarten I asked a friend why "Hitler didn't like Jews". He said his grandmother was Jewish and he didn't like her, which made sense to us. When I was 9, my Jewish best friend and I had friendship armbands in neon colors, which I loved to bits, exclaiming that "I'm a Neon-Nazi". Still totally clueless, it was still all just words to me. The deeply appalled reaction of his mother was like a gut punch, probably like my innocent but horrid statement was to her.
When I was 11 and alone, I randomly changed channels (we only had the 3) and was faced with a bunch of corpses being shoved into a grave by a caterpillar. I remember that as if it was yesterday, and with everything I learned since then, that was the horrible anchor. But like you probably too, I wouldn't want to unsee it either. And I still sometimes can't help but wonder about the streets I walk through. Did some of those houses see people get dragged out and carried to their murder? How would the dead judge our too common unwillingness to speak out against injustice, even though we're very free to do so in comparison to them? There's so much, but I fear it less than I fear looking away.
While I also think testimonies, big and small, by real people (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/user/YadVashem/videos ) are important and need to be preserved, I can honestly say that for me, they were not really necessary, that is they came long after this had already become and integral part of me. Even "just" what can be read in books sufficed, but that's because I went looking for it, because I needed to learn. Similarly, I think it's perfectly possible for people to be so jaded to even shrug off a testimony given in person. So that's both good and bad news, I guess?
I worry what happens when the last of those that actually remember any of this die and all we're left with is the stories and the grainy footage. Humanity's track record for repeating mistakes is not encouraging.
There have been acts of genocide since World War 2 so it's not really a memory problem. To have countries not repeat mistakes like this would need a new approach?
I'm genuinely curious to read more accounts of those very early days when Jewish people were first being treated like the enemy by a very small but vocal minority wielding righteous indignation as their weapon of choice.
"The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior 'righteous indignation' — this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats."
Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow
Depending on where you live, if you pay taxes you probably already have, millions of them, for atrocities on a scale that make Kristallnacht look tame.
[+] [-] tpush|8 years ago|reply
When learning about the Nazi time in history class I always had some amount of emotional distance between me and the subject.
Hearing survivors' accounts made away with that. That was when I, as a German(who had a grand-grandfather who fought for the Nazis), felt deep genuine regret and sorrow for the actions(or inaction) of my ancestors.
I worry what will happen when the last survivor dies.
[+] [-] wordupmaking|8 years ago|reply
When I was 11 and alone, I randomly changed channels (we only had the 3) and was faced with a bunch of corpses being shoved into a grave by a caterpillar. I remember that as if it was yesterday, and with everything I learned since then, that was the horrible anchor. But like you probably too, I wouldn't want to unsee it either. And I still sometimes can't help but wonder about the streets I walk through. Did some of those houses see people get dragged out and carried to their murder? How would the dead judge our too common unwillingness to speak out against injustice, even though we're very free to do so in comparison to them? There's so much, but I fear it less than I fear looking away.
While I also think testimonies, big and small, by real people (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/user/YadVashem/videos ) are important and need to be preserved, I can honestly say that for me, they were not really necessary, that is they came long after this had already become and integral part of me. Even "just" what can be read in books sufficed, but that's because I went looking for it, because I needed to learn. Similarly, I think it's perfectly possible for people to be so jaded to even shrug off a testimony given in person. So that's both good and bad news, I guess?
[+] [-] AlexandrB|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zitterbewegung|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shard972|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shard972|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] malandrew|8 years ago|reply
"The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior 'righteous indignation' — this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats." Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow
[+] [-] lapsock|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] olewhalehunter|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DGAP|8 years ago|reply