In Germany, just decades before the Holocaust, Jews were welcomed and celebrated members of society. They participated in all aspects of life and were generally considered to be German. Hitler’s commanding officer in World War I was actually Jewish. But, with the problems that plagued Germany following their failed campaign, they needed someone to blame. They rallied against the Jews. Hitler capitalized on existing anti-Semitic ideas and reignited the hatred of Jews in Germany.
Other European countries were more concerned about their war efforts than protecting a people being exterminated. The United Kingdom was the only nation that accepted large numbers of Jewish refugees. Canada and the United States turned away thousands. Nobody destroyed trains to the camps. Nobody tried liberating camps without ulterior motives. In fact, many countries, like Poland and Romania, were happy somebody was finally dealing with their Jewish problem.
Nobody cared about saving the Jews. The Nazis were the ones committing the atrocities, but nobody else really thought their lives worth saving.
My grandfather was one of those Jews who were driven out of Romania. He and his family were sent to a ghetto in Ukraine, where he lost his parents and most of his siblings. He was able to escape and lived in the forest for months before being picked up by the Russian military. They only took him because he spoke Russian and German, and was useful for translation.
I talk about the history because it’s so easy for us to forget how inhumanly we treat others. Within a span of a few years, Jews had their rights taken away, were treated as sub-human, and then shipped off to be murdered. And nobody seemed to notice.
But the Holocaust wasn’t just a tragedy. It was an event that triggered a global shift in how we think about others and how we treat them. The genocide of Jews and other minorities in Europe led the world to reconsider our notions of how we treat each other as humans, and what being a human really means.
These lessons are so profound that looking at how what happened, happened, the current state of our society is shocking. The divisions, the conflicts, the discrimination, the prejudice. The world was shocked at the horrors of the War, yet the same sentiments that lead to them run rampant.
We still have people who survived a genocide telling their stories today, and then people who say they lie or exaggerate. That the tattoo on their forearm, marking them for life, is some sort of plot.
There are divides all over Western society. Xenophobia, discrimination against LGBTQ2S+, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, anti-Indigenous racism, and Sinophobia, just to name a few. People actively wish for harm to befall others and blame others for all the problems in their lives. After what happened only seventy-six years ago, we should still remember the devastating result these same feelings had.
We should remember the Holocaust because we should honour the memory of those who died and suffered because people just didn’t care. But we should also remember the Holocaust because it should remind us of how we treat each other. How we need to respect each other. Care for each other. Help each other when we’re in need. Understand others’ point of view. Listen to others. Strive for a society where we are all treated with inherent dignity, love, and compassion.
Never forget. Never again.
The Jewish Law Students Association is hosting an event for Holocaust remembrance 27 January at 4:00 p.m. on Zoom. Dean Condon and Vice Dean Drake will be speaking, as will a special speaker, and Holocaust survivor Eva Meisels, who will be there to share their story.
Eva Meisels was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1939, an only child. After her father was taken to a forced labour camp in 1942, Eva and her mother were sent to the Budapest Ghetto and eventually, a safe house. They obtained false papers from Raoul Wallenberg and were liberated by the Soviet Army. After the war, with her family reunited, Eva went back to school and immigrated to Canada in 1956.