Posted on 05/16/2015 8:46:23 PM PDT by robowombat
Will Future Generations Even Remember the Holocaust? 6:00AM EDT 5/11/2015 YORI YALON/ISRAEL HAYOM
The Yad Vashem Memorial Sculpture, was erected in memory of the victims of the Nazi concentration camps. Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, is most often associated with the commemoration of the millions of Jews who were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.
Shalev, who was born in 1939 in Jerusalem, has devoted more than two decades of his life to memorializing the Holocaust. Throughout the years, his work has turned the institution that he heads into an international educational institute of the highest order. His work at Yad Vashem has consumed him, as he has immersed himself in it.
Naturally, Shalev is preparing for the inevitable fact that one day there will be no survivors left to provide firsthand accounts of the atrocities they experienced in the Holocaust. "One of the reasons I came to Yad Vashem in the first place was the vision and long-term thinking of preparing for an era when there are no survivors among us," Shalev says.
"The most important thing is to have a strong educational mechanism. Without true education on the topic there will never be significant memory of the Holocaust. What we have built here is a school that teaches the Holocaust, trains teachers and deals with the youth. It deals with materials that come directly from the Holocaust and require a value-driven educational treatment."
Education, he emphasizes, will not happen on its own. He insists that Israeli society, which embraces the survivors, has a major role to play: "The survivors have opened up over the last 20 years. Israeli society has undergone an extremely positive process—they [the survivors] are seen as cultural heroes, and young people are eager to listen to their stories. They have donated their journals to us, but more importantly, their testimonies. We have a collection of 120,000 different testimonies.
"We have learned how to use a survivor's testimony once the survivor is no longer with us. We have developed a number of methods with the use of excerpts from the testimonies interspersed with our texts. We also use their words. Their voices are essential to us in the educational process. We are building information resources that are critical in this world of ever-dwindling living survivors. We systematically process the memory of the Holocaust specifically for the younger generation."
Shalev has ushered Yad Vashem into the digital era in an impressive manner. The fruits of his labor are many. For example, in 2014, 13.6 million people visited Yad Vashem's website in every language and from 214 different countries, not including Israel. Today, Yad Vashem has a website in Arabic and even one in Farsi, with many visitors hailing from Arab countries as well as Iran.
"There is not a country in the world that hasn't visited our website," Shalev says proudly. "It is astounding and constantly growing. A lot of people attend our exhibits. We are also very active on social networks—on Facebook and Twitter. On YouTube we have a lot of Arab visitors. It is an excellent platform for social activity."
The Holocaust From an Innovative Viewpoint
Despite the technological advances, it is impossible to ignore the fact that anti-Semitism is present in varying degrees in Europe and among the world's Muslim population. It seems that the lessons of the Holocaust have not been learned in so many places in the world.
"Much to our surprise, and to our chagrin, we are seeing a rise in displays of anti-Semitism in Europe as well as North America. It is hard to predict what will happen. I don't know a single historian or sociologist who foresaw this development. This is a paradoxical situation, and therefore things are entirely unpredictable. Interest in Holocaust commemoration continues to take center stage in Europe's awareness, its public discourse and education. There is a common thread of speech against anti-Semitism and racism. Everyone understands that anti-Semitic ideology is terribly bad and that it actually hurts local societies.
"But apparently anti-Semitism still exists, and it is bubbling under the surface. It sees the Jews as different and as something that embodies part of the evil that exists in society. Likewise, countries that were under Soviet rule and gained independence are now looking to bolster and express their national identity. That is true mainly in the Baltic states. They talk about the Soviet genocide perpetrated against them. They want to build up their own identity so they push the Jewish story aside into the margin, though they don't deny it altogether. The moment nationalism begins to rise anew, anti-Semitism resurfaces with it. The leadership must fight this phenomenon."
Shalev began his work in the public arena with a varied career in the Israel Defense Forces. During his service as an infantry soldier in the paratroopers division, he fought in the Six-Day War and was wounded on the Egyptian front. Between 1972 and 1974 he worked in the nerve center of the military as the bureau chief of then-IDF Chief of Staff David Elazar (also known as Dado). It was in working alongside Elazar that Shalev experienced the Yom Kippur War.
After the war, Shalev served in the Education Corps as Israel's chief education officer and commander of the corps. Following his retirement from years of military service, Shalev was appointed director of the Culture Authority in the Ministry of Education and Culture, as well as chairman of the National Council of Culture and Art.
Shalev has served as the chairman of Yad Vashem since 1993. As part of his work as chairman, he initiated a multi-annual, comprehensive development plan with the aim of preparing the Yad Vashem museum for the challenges of remembrance and commemoration in the 21st century. The International School for Holocaust Studies, which provides educational programs and produces educational materials for a variety of groups in Israel and abroad, is the only school of its kind. Shalev founded it in 1993 as part of this comprehensive program. The school trains hundreds of teachers, both Israeli and foreign, every year, and teaches tens of thousands of children, teens, soldiers and officers.
Another central component of this program was the establishment of several museums and exhibits, including the new Holocaust History Museum, which Shalev curated. The new museum presents the history of the Holocaust from an innovative viewpoint, incorporating the stories told by individuals within the chronological and historical context of the era. The inauguration of the new museum in March was a real milestone in the commemoration of the Holocaust in Israel and in the world.
No Hidden Messages
For quite some time, Yad Vashem has become much more than a center for commemorating the Holocaust. In 2003, Yad Vashem won the Israel Prize for its contribution to the state and its people. In 2007, Yad Vashem won the Spanish Prince of Asturias Award for Concord—comparable to the Nobel Prize for Spanish-speaking nations. That same year, then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy personally presented Shalev with France's Legion of Honor. In 2011, Shalev received the prestigious Patron of Jerusalem Award for his public service. In 2014 he received the Presidential Medal of Distinction from then-President Shimon Peres.
When he describes his role at Yad Vashem, Shalev speaks passionately: "As a representative of universal educators, I am saying that we have a daunting task ahead of us to try and close the ever-widening gap between the dizzying forward motion of technology and the lagging behind of the ethical establishment. We need to shape the minds of educators, who in turn will shape the minds of the youth. Many educators believe in this cause. At Yad Vashem we are building a system that trains cadres of educators who are willing to fight; willing to wind themselves up like a spring in their communities.
"We have a responsibility that goes beyond relaying content from the Holocaust. We have 2,000 people every year who serve as our trustees in various countries and are willing to combat anti-Semitism. It is not enough, but it is essential and contributes greatly to the battle against anti-Semitism. When we talk to Western and Asian societies, we can see that there are innate checks there that prevent and reduce anti-Semitism. Sadly, in the world of Islam, there are no such checks."
Shalev recounts how he is constantly looking for creative ways of anchoring the memory of the Holocaust and its lessons. He aspires to compile a uniform text that will serve as the Passover Haggadah of the story of the Holocaust. "Israeli-Jewish society has been unable to achieve such a Haggadah. Everyone agrees on the text. There have been thoughts and efforts to create a 'Haggadah of the Holocaust,' but the time is not yet ripe. It can be done, though. The process has begun. The aim is to build the teachings. We need to find our meaning together.
"The future challenge is twofold," Shalev says. "Yad Vashem needs to be prolific and continue building the infrastructure of information. We must not abandon it. We have committed ourselves to gathering all the documented materials that exist in the world alongside countless testimonies, objects and photographs. The Holocaust research will continue for hundreds of years to come.
"The main path, however, is education. We need to make sure that in 20 years there is still a memory that has meaning for the youth. In 20 years I want my great-grandchildren to know that the Holocaust is part of what makes up their identity as members of a committed society, giving their lives meaning. If we achieve that, we have done our job well.
"We are completely transparent and that is our secret. Our museum is so successful, and it is in fact considered one of the most successful museums in the world, because it tells a good story. We don't have any hidden messages. We put a story in front of people, and the goal is touch each person. To provide an experience. If a person is moved and comes out of this experience with a few bits of information, he will carry that information onward. The goal is to plant the seed. That creates something huge."
For the original article, visit israelhayom.com.
Why would anyone care about the Nazi holocaust? North Korea has concentration camps today,,, right as you read this. ISIS is doing it today.
Nobody cares about the ones today, so why would they care about the historic ones?
Almost nobody but Jews. How many know the Chmielnicki Massacres? The culture in which the Holocaust flourished will disappear, so it will lose meaning even as a taunt to political opponents.
Of course they will — the “progressives” intend to reenact it.
One of the least insightful statements ever.. Apparently you do notnderstand the nature of evil
My kids have been learning it in high school. They laugh though when they hear about “never again”.
“So the history teacher teaches us about the Holocaust, and that we have to learn it so it never happens again. But then talks about how we never should have been in Vietnam - but doesn’t talk about Pol Pot in Cambodia!”
And of course Rwanda, ISIS, etc.
Seems about right to me. Our time and culture is a little too close to forget right now, but it may be only a generation until it is only boring ancient history. Or worse, it could be that a coming holocaust - maybe not of Jews - will be even worse.
That’s some idiotic teacher your kids have. Do you dangle a shiny keychain in front of her to play with during PTA meetings?
The most prominent and powerful abortionist/activist in Canada—Morgenthaler—emerged from, I think, Auschwitz, to kill tens of thousands of babies. And I think he is not the only death camp survivor to do so. He started doing abortions, very publicly, long before abortion was legalized. IIRC, something like 80% of the abortionists in the U.S. are Jews—or were around 1973. Many Muslims have become abortionists.
bump
The only good part is that my kids know they are idiots.
Yes, and if the liberals have their way, the young folks being taught about it will leave thinking that the Republican party did it, just like they think the Republican party was the party of slavery here in the US.
It will, in time, fade in memory like the Black Death, the 30 years war, and the Terror of the French Revolution, to name a few. Time not so much heals all wounds as lets them be forgotten as the generation that experienced it passes and new generations only vaguely learn of it.
Future generations of Europeans and Americans will be taught the Jews “had it coming to them” while on their prayer rugs facing Mecca.
In all fairness, the truly unique element of the Holocaust was that it was the first major “industrial genocide” in a modern nation.
This distinguishes it from war and its slaughters, which involves antagonists and civilians associated with them in some way. Instead, while the Holocaust was in the context of war, it was a genocide directed against a peaceful, even loyal segment of the nation. It was effectively an unrelated, planned event of a nation turning on part of its people.
And Germany of the time was an educated, literate nation, with some of the most advanced technologies on the planet.
What made it an “industrial” genocide was the actual diversion of industry, in time of war, away from the war effort to the imprisonment and slaughter of people.
As an aside, while the US entered a state of “total war”, in which everything done was seen in the perspective of “the war effort”, Germany never entered into this state, and tried to maintain production of consumer goods at the cost of the war effort.
But in the final analysis, not only will the Holocaust fade from memory, but so will the Nazis themselves. And while it took well over a hundred years for the French to try and rehabilitate “the antichrist” Napoleon Bonaparte, so too with Hitler eventually be thought of as just another “German leader.”
Who remembers the Armeians killed by the Turks? Who remembers the killing of Jews in York in the 12th Century? the slaughter of people in Constantinople. The murder and enslavement of the people of Carthage? It will be forgotten in time—Unless a bew bloodbath replaces it. What happens if Hamas seizes Israel? Or IS? Or Iran Nukes Israel?
In part I agree. However, what makes the Holocaust have multigenerational (or should) impact is the endless historical persistence of Judeophobia. It is unlike any other similar phenomenon in history that I am familiar with. From century to century Jews are singled out as a group for collective guilt and punishment for an ever changing but endless array of ‘crimes’. Today that which seemingly cannot die appears among us again with not just Muslims but a wide range of Europeans from France and Great Britain to Russia once again uttering the old phrases which indict the Jews as a particularly reprehensible people and the nation of the Jews, Israel, as an especially loathsome entity (that sh-tty little country to quote a very upper class French cabinet officer) meriting destruction and the Israeli Jews deserving if not annihilation at least expulsion amid some pretty substantial blood letting.
In 1923, in the year of the Beer Hall Putsch, Dietrich Eckart a journalist and semi-intellectual who can be called the spiritual godfather of national Socialism published a phampflet in the form of a dialog between Eckart and Hitler titled ‘Bolshevism From Lenin to Moses’. It reflects the core belief of these two and the NS movement that the Jews represented the occult power of revolutionary subversion throughout history and were responsible for deflecting man from his natural path. In other words the Jews are responsible for everything bad from drug trafficking to 9-11. The persistence of the ethnophobia means that as long as it is around Jews will never be safe from collective scapegoating and mass repression. That is what makes the Holocaust relevant as a warning of what can happen and a memory of what once did happen.
People remember the near holocaust of the Jews when they were saved by Judith, then when saved by Esther, then when saved by the Maccabees. People remember the Armenian holocaust by the Moslem Turks and Kurds, people remember the Georgian holocaust by the Moslem Timur-e-Lang, people remember the Hindu holocaust by Muhammad Ghazni
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