From Memory to Action

While in D.C., we went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History (of course), saw all of the memorials at the national mall and went to the Holocaust Museum.  Now, I have many opinions about all of it.  I could tell you how much I disliked the WWII memorial, or how I found the Korean War memorial goulish and fantastic at the same time.  I could also tell you how fantastic it was to be a part of the re-created sit-in workshop at the Greensboro Sit-in lunch counter exhibit.  But, what I really cannot get out of my head was the Holocaust Museum.


As a historian, I can generally pick out trends or ways in which things happened or changed.  But the Holocaust in incomprehensibly confusing to me.  I don't understand how we let it happen.  I understand how Adolf Hitler rose to power, and how he was able to implement incredible changes very rapidly.  I also understand how he was able to fit his policies into our existing prejudices.  There was very little that was different between segregating Jews in Germany and institutional racial segregation that was already in place in the U.S.  I also see very little difference between the psuedo-scientific theories and energies that went into distinguishing Jew and those that were applied to Native Americans here in the U.S. less than 50 years earlier.  I also get that Jews were discriminated against which is why so few countries allowed for them to come as refugees, America included.  


What I don't understand is how billions of people and hundreds of countries generally ignored the torture and slaughter of millions of Jews, political prisoners, homosexuals, Roma, and generally anyone who spoke against and lived differently from Hitler's message.  Because, that is exactly what we did.  We all turned a blind eye or simply chose not to think about it.  So, if the world can sit by while millions of white Europeans are being slaughtered, then what hope do Somalis or Rwandans have?  And what about the Palestinians who now suffer, in part, from the same Jews who were victims of unthinkable violence just a generation ago?

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.

Martin Niemöller