Came across this article Out of Auschwitz this morning. Mr. Pisar, the author, writes that
"Today, the last living survivors of the Holocaust are disappearing one by one. Soon, history will speak about Auschwitz with the impersonal voice of researchers and novelists at best, and at worst in the malevolent register of revisionists and falsifiers who call the Nazi Final Solution a myth." This is not a groundless worry. It is easy to diminish the intensity and very realness of this tragedy as history removes us farther from it and the personal connections to the Holocaust are lost as its survivors pass away. As our daily encounters with temporality increase and it seems that we as a culture/people are less concerned with establishing concrete connection back to our own history, it is vital that as individuals we become students of this history. It is unfortunately impossible to know/remember everything. But something needs to be selected, some part of history that resonates with you should be so deeply internalized that it affects the way you see the world. This will be our preservation and our new history.
1 comment:
"The Holocaust, which destroyed a people, teaches us that nature, even in its cruelest moments, is benign in comparison with man when he loses his moral compass and his reason."
Jeremy, this is the most important and insightful statement in the article--man has lost his moral compass.
Mom
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