Hello, this is Isaiah, an Arts CAP student at UBC. In class we have been discussing how people remember certain events, and how information is shared and taught about those events. I am writing to you and hoping to shed an important perspective on one of the most tragic events in human history, and share a learning experience that I had that was connected to it. The Holocaust redefines what the limits of evil can be, it proves to the world that cruelty has no bounds, that mercy is a foreign concept to some people, and that the human spirit and mind can be broken down and moulded. For those of you who do not know, the Holocaust was the systematic murder of eleven million people by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Regime. Six million of those people were Jews. In the wake of an event as crushing and brutal as the Holocaust many people, myself included, wonder: how exactly should I remember the holocaust? This question is too large for me to tackle in one blog post. I’m not here to provide you with a direct, straightforward answer to this question, that would be insensitive of me, considering the spectrum of involvement that people have in the Holocaust. I will just be going into one aspect of remembrance towards the Holocaust.
I spent the last year in Israel doing a gap year program. One portion of the program involved an 8 day seminar to Poland where we visited many of the concentration camps involved in the systematic murders. A large portion of the seminar was discussing what it should like to remember the Holocaust. I am here to share some of the ideas and conversations that I took part in.
Forgetting about the Holocaust is the wrong way to approach the situation. Remembrance is important for events like these, we should pay respect to the countless people who lost their lives, we should learn from the mistakes of others. How we should pay respect, is the question. When remembering, what aspects should we remember? A portion of the tour was in the concentration camp: Auschwitz I, the tour ended with an option to go into Block 11. Block 11 was where the Nazis would punish and torture the prisoners of Auschwitz I for crimes that they saw fit to deserve punishment. (For more information on Block 11 please follow this link: http://www.scrapbookpages.com/AuschwitzScrapbook/Tour/Auschwitz1/Auschwitz06.html)
When we came to this portion the tour guide heavily discouraged that we go into this part of the camp. At first I was confused and, because we were in a rush, I went in anyways. At the time I was in the mindset that the best way to remember is to absorb as much information as possible so I walked right in, it sickened me. In hindsight, I am conflicted. The tour guide explained that the reason why he discouraged us to go in was because it was the wrong area of the holocaust to remember. He felt that when people share stories of the holocaust they like to compare stories and see who has the most shocking information. I understand this point of view, I see where he was coming from, but I am still unsure of, if I had to do it over again, would I still have gone in? (This is not to say that I think that that Block 11 was the most gruesome part of the Holocaust, I am not trying to make any sweeping statements, I am just sharing an experience that I went through.) The question I always have to ask myself is: what would the victims want? How would they want to be remembered? Would they want us to know everything? Would they want us to know all the pain they went through? Or would all they want is for us to remember their name? These are the questions I ask myself every time the topic of remembering the Holocaust comes up. Some interesting links regarding this topic are as follows:
http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/essays/124619/the-importance-remembering-holocaust
http://www.ushmm.org/remember/days-of-remembrance/why-we-remember