January 27 is a day each year dedicated to remembering the horrors of the Holocaust. Eleven million people were systematically murdered, including six million Jews. This slaughter was carried out over the better part of a decade, and it was no accident. Adults, children, and infants were brutally killed. (For a more detailed history lesson, click here.)
However, anti-Semitism neither began nor ended with the Holocaust. According to the Anti-Defamation League, in the last few years, anti-Semitic incidents have reached an all-time high in the United States (since the ADL began tracking them in 1979). An FBI report showed that in 2019, anti-Semitic incidents rose by 14% from the previous year and that 60.2% of all religious hate crimes targeted Jews. Jews only make up 1.7% of the U.S. population.
In a nation-wide survey of people under age 40, 63% of respondents did not know that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. Incredibly, 10% of the respondents did not believe that the Holocaust had even happened at all. Just weeks ago, we witnessed insurrectionists at the Capitol wearing T-shirts that read “Camp Auschwitz” and “6MWE” (six million wasn’t enough).
Today is a day when we commemorate those lost in the Holocaust. It is also a day to remember our role in ensuring that this atrocity never happens again. It is imperative that our leaders and schools take a stand by acknowledging this important day.
“The Holocaust was no accident of history. It occurred because too many governments cold-bloodedly adopted and implemented hate-fueled laws, policies, and practices to vilify and dehumanize entire groups of people, and too many individuals stood by silently. Silence is complicity.”
An excerpt from Joe Biden’s statement today on International Day of Holocaust Remembrance
Holocaust education in school is crucial in order to spread awareness of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism that persists in the world today. At MLHS, Mr. Hoffman teaches a course called Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He shared with me the words of Auschwitz survivor and author Primo Levi: “It happened, therefore it can happen again . . . It can happen, and it can happen everywhere.”
“Levi’s words are the reason why I asked the Board of Education five years ago to restore a course that had disappeared from the MLHS course selection sheet about 10 years earlier. By this June over 150 MLHS students will have completed Honors Seminar – Holocaust & Genocide Studies, and are familiar with the events that led to this awful chapter of history. My hope is that each of them can apply the lessons of the Holocaust to the world around them, in their direct interactions with other people and their participation in civic life.”
Mr. Hoffman
Despite offering this course at MLHS, today our school administrators have opted to remain silent about the International Day of Holocaust Remembrance.
Two-thirds of young Americans do not know what Auschwitz is. Raising awareness starts in our own community. Mountain Lakes School District administrators and teachers: it is incumbent upon you to say something. Silence is not an option.
0
0
I am so proud of this article. I am so disappointed that nothing was mentioned in today’s announcements. My husband Ed is Jewish and although he never had to go thru this tragedy it lives within his family and friends who are Jewish. I am so sorry that this situation was not recognized however I thank the Mountaineer for not forgetting and bringing this to our attention. This article was absolutely spectacular and so well written. I thank you so very much.
Mrs. Debra Kovar