Yom HaShoah

I have learned more this year about the Shoah (Holocaust) then ever before.

As part of the 8th grade class trip, we went to the Holocaust museum in St. Louis.  Having a tour guide was an option, so I offered my "expertise" to lead my students.  I researched from 1935-1945, discovering and rediscovering things.  I though I was prepared.

When we got there, one of the staff informed us that there was a speaker, and if we wanted we could sit in on the remainder of his talk, as long as we were quiet.  So we walked into this small auditorium and sat in the back.  Up front was a Lithuanian named Mendel Rosenberg.  We got to hear the last five minutes before the group already there moved on.  As they did, I walked up.  I introduced myself, explain my class and why we were there, and asked if we could ask some questions.  He said he would check to see if he had enough time.  When he came back, he said he could give a shortened version of his story.

My class had never been quieter.

Rosenberg had survived Dachau.  He tells his story so that we do not forget.

The same reason why I teach history.

My 5th and 6th grade students got to learn about the Holocaust as well.  They were given an option between two books, and six chose "Number the Stars."  Since most had read it before, I gave them history research projects.  When they presented them, I taught a very condensed version of the Shoah.  Most of that lesson was on the policies and events leading to the Holocaust.  I explained the concentration camps.  Of the extermination camps, all I showed were the names, the number killed, and the gate at Auschwitz.  I told them I would not take them any farther.

A few of the pictures and stories still haunt me.

As a historian, I can give more information than you could want on the topic.  And much of it exceeds what would be considered acceptable for even the most gruesome rated "R" movie.  But I am afraid.  I am afraid that people are forgetting it.  The "final solution" was over seventy years ago.  Many would believe that it means nothing to us now.  It happened so long ago and on the other side of the world.  And most of the people involved are long gone.  Why does it matter?

One lie: Arbeit Macht Frei.  "Work makes you free."

The motto, officially or unofficially, of historians is from George Santayana: "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

There are things about one of the darkest parts of human history that I did not tell my students.  Some of those things they are not ready for, yet.  And some of those things I will never tell them.  But I will never hesitate to tell my students that this horror happened.

Survivors like Mendel Rosenberg tells their stories so that we would never forget.  I pray that never happens, and that we never allow anything like the Shoah to happen again, ever.

Shalom.