Throughout the past two weeks I have been reading books about the Holocaust. Such as Maus I, Maus II by Art Spiegelman and Survival in Auschwitz: If This is a Man by Primo Levi. Learning about the horrors of the Holocaust is heart wrenching and eye-opening. I love learning about the Holocaust and history because I believe it always relates to something happening in present-day. When I learn about the Holocaust I am dumbfounded when I think about how people still try to claim that it never happened! There are still people around who lived through these horrific times. I think it’s completely disrespectfully and ignorant to say that it didn’t happen. Though to many of us it may seem like so long ago but for others it still haunts their lives. Families of Holocaust survivors have to deal with the lasting effects. For Art in Maus, he didn’t always understand his father’s ways but it was clear that his was changed because of the things he went through.
I decided to search blogs dealing with the Holocaust and I came across one that really upset me. In New Zeeland, five schoolboys visited a Holocaust museum and kissed a swastika and bowed to Nazi symbols. They completely disrespected veterans and their families. Though they viewed it as a joke, millions of people were massed murder, and nothing is funny about it. The students had to make an apology to the museum, veterans, their school, and country.
They apologized to all the people they hurt, including all the people of New Zealand, which I thought was a brave thing to do, and it made me think that they really understood the magnitude of what they had done.
There was also another incident that took place with 15 college students who went to a party dressed as Nazis and victims from concentration camps. It’s shocking to me that people can take something as serious as the Holocaust and turn it into a joke.
It might seem a long time [ago] to them, but it’s still in the lifetime of young survivors.
I think it’s very important that we learn about the Holocaust and to be sensitive to other feelings. I plan on teaching and I would be embarrassed and disappointed if my students acted in this way. People need to learn to think about how their actions are going to affect others before they do it. What if that would have been their families members that were murdered?
Racism clearly still remains in our world and when people act with such ignorance it’s hard to ignore. If we keep passing on these ideas of superiority and prejudice views, we will never change.
Fight dem back! (Blog referenced)
waldronl Said:
on October 25, 2009 at 1:16 am
As gruesome and tragic as the holocaust was I too enjoyed reading the books and learning about the history of it. It’s weird how we try so hard to prevent history from repeating itself, but a lot of our current events have characteristics of the past.
When I read your post on the behavior of those students it shocked me that people still behave that way! After all these years you’d think people would know better. I agree that it is important to teach students about the holocaust, I plan on teaching too and I wouldn’t want my students to act that way either! As future teachers, hopefully we can help make a difference one day!
winegarl Said:
on October 28, 2009 at 10:41 pm
I also plan on teaching and reading through your posts helped me realize just how vital it is that we educate our students about events that affect other people. If students are educated about critical points in history such as the Holocaust then they will likely have compassion for the people who survived and those who were affected long term. I have a very close friend from Germany who was an exchange student during my senior year in high school. When he came to the United States he took a History class and briefly learned things about the Holocaust that he was never taught in his school in Germany. He told me that his family talks about it and he knows some of the facts but he had no idea how devastating the Holocaust truly was. I am very frustrated to learn that some German schools fail to educate their students about pivital points in their nation’s history. I believe that it is extremely important for educators to take it upon themselves to be absolutely certain that their students have a vast knowledge of events such as the Holocaust so these children have compassion for the people who were affected.
Rob Said:
on October 28, 2009 at 11:05 pm
I agree with you, I think it’s crazy that there are people out there who claim that the Holocaust never happened. It’s very disrespectful to those who lived through it or those who lost family members at the hands of the Nazi’s. I can’t believe that you found that story about those schoolboys in New Zeeland who kissed the swastika and bowed to the Nazi flag. It’s hard for me to stomach how people, with any knowledge of World War II, could do something like that. The same thing with the group of high school kids who dressed up like Nazis and Holocaust victims. You make a good point in that even though it has been a long time since World War II, the Holocaust should still remain a topic that people shouldn’t joke about. No amount of time can heal what was done to the Jewish community. I also like the fact that you put a picture of the boys bowing to the flag right in your blog. Putting it right at the top really made me want to read the rest of your blog and see what you had to say about it. I completely agree with your point of view on this topic.
eldribri Said:
on October 29, 2009 at 4:33 am
In your post it is the symbol of the swastika that is being idealized by these students and the ideals that it represents. On a similar note I believe this is happening all over America, however not relating to the Holocaust and the swastika. In America, mostly in the south many people are still waving the confederate flag or flaunting it in some fashion in support of what it stood for. As you know, the south wanted to secede from the union (United States) and form their own nation to govern themselves and keep slavery legal. It would not surprise me if the numbers of people affected by slavery were equal or above those of the Holocaust, yet it is still being idolized. It is appalling that some people are unable to move on from this, even when that time was not in their lifetime, but perhaps that is the underlying factor. Had those students seen the horrors for themselves rather than having read it in some textbook or seen it in a movie they would feel much differently. One thing I find funny about the picture is that these kids are far from what was the Aryan race making them prime candidates for one of the death camps. They would be singing a far different tune had they been there suffering among those most strongly affected. Perhaps that is the same case with the flying of the confederate flag. Put them in a slaves shoes and lets see how they feel about it after.
pitschwm Said:
on October 29, 2009 at 3:25 pm
It is hard to believe that people would be so inconsiderate about a topic such as the Holocaust. To be so blatantly disrespectful to the families, veterans, to everyone really with any sort of moral incite is just wrong. I to can not see how anyone would think this was funny or in any way a good idea. Chalk it up to immaturity, or a lack of understanding about the subject and the impact their actions would have on the people who suffered the most, is about the only way that I can make sense about it. I had the pleasure of visiting the A-bomb museum in Hiroshima, Japan in 2005 and never would I ever attempt a stunt like this. Being in a city that was leveled to the ground was such a humbling experience for me. To know that we, as a nation, were the cause of it was remarkable. I take pity on anybody ,in order to get a laugh, feels that they need to exploit the pain and suffering of someone else.
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