Holocaust

Leave a comment Posted on D-Day Normandy invasion, Holocaust, Never Again

Remembering Never Again

It is hard to believe that three-fourths of a century ago the June 6, 1944 D-Day Normandy invasion occurred, a major turning point leading to the end of World War II.

Reading stories about veterans making the journey back to France for the 75th commemoration is a reminder about how few World War II servicemen are still alive—under half a million.

Time is running out for young people to hear first-hand what World War II was like, and to hear from Holocaust survivors for they, too, are dying off—only 400,000 remain.

Soon, students will only learn about these major historic events from textbooks and videos.

With the world increasingly rife with fake news and debunkers of facts, the rallying cries of “Remember Pearl Harbor” and “Never Again” will evaporate.   In fact, just last year after the Parkland, Florida high school shooting, a hashtag “Never Again” was used to label school shootings effectively wiping away its original meaning about the six million Jewish people who were exterminated.

Two-thirds of millennials don’t know anything about Auschwitz, according to the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany 2018 study.  Meanwhile, in an Anti-Defamation League study, there was a doubling of anti-Semitic assaults in the U.S. last year, which included the deadliest mass shooting of Jews in America at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

The Holocaust is part of the California History-Social Science Framework, one of 11 states that require such instruction.  That means 39 other states do not mandate the teaching of the most heinous grand-scale mechanization of killing the world has ever known.

Is there a connection between the lack of teaching and the rise of hatred?

The Poway synagogue attack was just a few weeks ago.  And this week, two students from Palos Verdes High School made the news for an online post of a “promposal” sign which spelled out the N-word.  The photo of them holding up the sign and laughing hysterically reminds us about how much young people need to learn.  They also need to learn that colleges and employers have access to the internet.

Remember, these are kids from high economic backgrounds who will enter the workforce and while they may make money, they will not make the world a better place with such a lack of sensitivity of people unlike themselves.

Currently, my students are studying the Holocaust and reading Night, Elie Wiesel’s memoir of his year in Auschwitz as a 15-year-old.  We could be right in the middle of a tender moment between Elie and his father struggling to find food, but as soon as the passing bell rings, students quickly slam the books shut and head for the exits as if they sit on joy buzzers, quickly plugging in their earbuds and texting friends.

Earlier this year, Holocaust survivors visited Hoover High.  I had a student TV crew videotape the event.   As these frail, elderly people shared the most traumatic experiences of their lives, there in the front row, center seat, was a girl whose head was down.  Not only should that student be ashamed, so should the teacher who did not properly monitor or prepare the students for this outing.

One would think that with a large Armenian population, these students would have more motivation to learn about genocide from people who escaped it.

As a teacher, it is sometimes disappointing to recognize that no matter how talented some of my students may be, their maturity lags behind due to their brains not fully developed until a decade later.  That is why auto insurance rates are so high for young drivers and don’t drop until age 25.

Every year, I teach William Stafford’s “Fifteen,” a poem about a teen who upon discovering a riderless motorcycle gets on the bike.   After revving the engine, the 15-year-old decides he is not ready to take the motorcycle on his life’s journey.  “He stood there, fifteen” ends the poem.

Parents and teachers need to ensure that their children are not “riderless” and guide them towards becoming better informed people.

 

 

 

 

 

Leave a comment Posted on Armenian genocide, Columbine, Holocaust

H is for Holocaust

Two-thirds of millennials (born between 1981-1996) can’t identify Auschwitz as a concentration camp.  Worse, nearly one-quarter aren’t sure if they ever heard the word Holocaust.

What does this say about the knowledge of those younger than 22?

These are the results from a study commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Not only do they not know about the largest concentration camp where 1.1 million Jews were exterminated, 20 percent of all Americans do not think that “it is important to keep teaching about the Holocaust.”  This does not bode well for it not happening again.

Amazing that people walk around with a personal computer in their back pocket, with vast knowledge literally at their fingertips, yet so much of its use is wasted on texting, social media and checking the time (younger people can’t read an analog clock).

They may know how to manipulate the devices, but are ignorant on how to sift through the detritus and distractions to find meaningful information.

Owning a smart phone does not make one smart.

In addition to the Holocaust, when six million Jews were killed, not two million according to nearly half of millennials, two other historic tragedies are commemorated this month:  the Armenian genocide and the Columbine high school shooting.  While one could explain away the foggy awareness of World War Two, what accounts for the misconceptions about Columbine which transpired a mere 19 years ago?

Most people think of Columbine as the first mass school shooting in U.S. history when actually it was a failed bombing.  The leader of the two culprits was enamored with outdoing the Oklahoma City bombing death total of 168.  Fortunately, the fuses were faulty—only one of the 40 bombs went off.

The impression of the event is that it lasted hours.  In reality, the whole occurrence lasted 47 minutes before they both killed themselves.  Yet officer training at the time was to create a perimeter around the area, waiting until it was safe for them to move in.  Today, the protocol is for law enforcement to go where the shooting is happening in order to bring down the shooter.

This slower approach accelerated the death of the sole teacher victim, Dave Sanders, who bled out over three hours.  Even though Eagle Scouts were with the fallen coach and did what they could, it is heartbreaking to learn that despite 911 operators’ reassurances that help was on the way, that help was too late in coming.

People think the two perpetrators were outcasts, bullied by their peers.  Not true.  In fact, these two bullied others, and they both had friends.  Yet, because of this inaccuracy, the topic of bullying became imbedded in school curriculums across America as a way to prevent another Columbine from happening.

And both teens lived in middle-class neighborhoods with both parents, not presumed broken homes.

The real story of Columbine conflicts with the perception of it which is why education is so vital.

In today’s times, facts and the truth have been battered beyond recognition by our political leaders.

Parents and teachers must teach their children about the past.   If nothing else, young people need to be taught how to access factual information.

Not even a century has passed since the end of World War Two, yet already younger people have lost track of significant world events of the 20th century.   What does this portend 50 years from now?  What important knowledge will be lost or distorted?

When Hitler prepared to invade Poland in 1939, he said with impunity in justifying the impending deaths of men, women, and children that “who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”