I'm beginning to get frustrated. Frustrated with an excessive self-absorbed unhappiness of my culture and religion--the self-sympathy of Jews in regards to the holocaust.
I slumped in a chair, my mind racing with vexation as I listen to a circle of Jewish students (who had all attended the same Jewish elementary school) arguing for the importance of education of the holocaust as the supreme historical event. The class was 20th Century Global Conflicts and we were discussing genocide, so the holocaust was a likely topic to examine. I, however, was not willing to listen to the self-empathetic tone of my fellow classmates when they spoke of the holocaust, as if the entirety of the atrocities of the Nazi regime had been directed at their family, as if Jews are the only ones who can understand the pain experienced by the European Jewish population, as if the epithet "Never Again" has been fulfilled.
This narrow view of genocide, of the holocaust, hinders the potential lessons we can learn from the event itself. The lesson of the holocaust, is one for all people. It is one that must be learned because the problems are still with us.
The Jewish community must also move on. It is important to learn and educate but it is also important not to dwell. For this reason, I signed up to go on this European "holocaust" trip. My grandparents, a rabbi and rabbi's wife, will not travel to Germany. They will not accept the new generation of Germans as different people than the previous Nazi generation, much to their unrest. They have not, and will not forgive the Germans. I do not judge them for this. I, however, do not want to dwell. I want to work toward "Never Again" and as the survivors are leaving us, this is the time to learn. It is now our generations responsibility to set precedent for the meaning of the holocaust, for the lessons we can learn from it but also for the way in which we use that knowledge. Let that knowledge join us, help us fight for "Never Again", not further divide us as a global community, the divisions of which caused the holocaust in the first place. Yes we can join together and let the words Never Again define our achievements, not our lack there of.

-Gabriel Frankel

The Holocaust in Print

One of our topics of discussion this week was memorializing the Holocaust, and if fictional art forms (like books, movies, etc.) about it were "OK." I remember our speaker from the field trip saying that she does not feel pleased whenever she sees/hears about them. I never knew people felt this way. I personally enjoy fictional books and movies about the Holocaust, like "Milkweed", and "Number the Stars," I absolutely love those books, so when I heard her say that, I tried to remove myself, and put my feet into her shoes to try and come to an understanding as to why she would feel the way she does. Sadly I can only try to understand, I think my understanding is clouded because of my love for those books and movies. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to take part in something that a survivor would find disrespectful to them. I can understand why she might feel the way she does, but I cannot empathize, which I guess is OK, but for myself personally, empathizing is not enough. So I will keep trying. The conversation did get a bit heated though, some felt the same way I did, while others agreed with our speaker. I'm just glad I am able to use true knowledge, from a survivor, on their feelings about such things, helping me to broaden my horizons, and use a larger viewpoint than I have before.
-Maleia Ransom

This past week, I went with the rest of the seminar to see the holocaust museum in Skokie, Illinois. I didn't know what to expect. I had never been to a holocaust museum before, let alone seen any actual artifacts from the event. One of the most moving items I saw at the museum was a train car that was used to transport prisoners (mainly Jews) from the ghettos throughout Europe to concentration and death camps. It was off to a dark corner in the museum, and there was a concrete ramp leading up to the doors of the train car from which people could walk inside a small portion of the train car. Standing in the middle of the train car, it seemed larger than life, a dark, hulking prison. Under other circumstances, the car would have seemed to be exactly what it is: just a large, old, rotted, wooden train car. But in the museum, knowing what purpose it had served in a different time, the train car seemed to have an especially ominous quality. The fact that what was really a very un-extraordinary object could be used to carry out such an unbelievably sinister purpose seemed to me an analogy for what I think is one of the most important lessons humanity needs to take away from the Holocaust. So many Nazi supporters, soldiers, and even officers in charge at the concentration and death camps claimed to have not known what was occurring inside the camps or to have just been carrying out orders from there superiors, and that was the reason they committed the murders that they did. The Holocaust was carried out by what were once ordinary people, who under the fascist dictatorship of the Nazi state, were manipulated into carrying out the Holocaust. In contemporary times, other genocides have occurred under similar regimes, such as that of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. However, in all of these genocides, just as during the Holocaust, there have been ordinary people that have stood up to such regimes to stop genocides. There are many stories of such people from the Holocaust, such as Catholic convents that hid Jewish children or Miep Gies and Victor Kugler who hid the Frank family. Although humanity has yet to find methods by which to prevent further genocides, the effects of these genocides have been softened somewhat by people who have stood up to injustices and refused to participate in such killings. If I learn one thing from this entire experience, I would like to learn to be one of those people who stands up to injustice and has the courage to stop genocide.

-Ben Gastevich

Opening our eyes...

I remember watching Life is Beautiful about six years ago and being moved by the story. It made me question how discrimination can have such an effect on people and how intolerance and hatred can be taken way out of proportion. I think that it is our job as citizens of the world to try to eliminate discrimination in the hope of avoiding yet another Holocaust. I guess that is why I chose this trip because I have been discriminated against and in some way I think it is my/our duty to stop the cycle of hatred by opening our eyes and hearts to new cultures, religions and people.

-Jessica Z. Martinez