WHY HOLOCAUST EDUCATION IS IMPORTANT
Holocaust education is compassion education, empathy education, and tolerance education.
At If You Heard What I Heard, we’re on a mission to capture the stories of grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, the last generation to ever hear survivor stories firsthand. Many of us are between the ages of 20 - 45, with the youngest participant to-date being 15 years old when we filmed her interview.
Our hope is through this project, people everywhere will have greater resonance with the stories of the Holocaust, and take away important lessons in compassion, empathy, and tolerance for all groups.
Keep scrolling for some common questions about the Holocaust:
SOME COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST:
Q: The Holocaust started when WW2 started in 1939, right?
A: The Holocaust actually started well before WW2 started. Years before the outbreak of WW2, when the Nazi regime rose to power, the Nazi party began its “systemic, state-sponsored persecution…” of Jews across Europe, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This started in 1933 when the Nazi’s rose to power, and shortly thereafter with the adoption of the Nuremberg Laws, where Jews were not allowed to practice certain trades, and were not afforded the same rights in society as non-Jews.
Q: Who is considered a Holocaust survivor, just those who were in concentration camps, right?
A: According to the United States Holocaust Museum, a Holocaust survivor is defined as “...any persons, Jewish or non-Jewish, who were displaced, persecuted, or discriminated against due to the racial, religious, ethnic, social, and political policies of the Nazis and their collaborators between 1933 and 1945. In addition to former inmates of concentration camps, ghettos, and prisons, this definition includes, among others, people who were refugees or were in hiding.”
In watching our interviews, you’ll notice many stories of survivors who were not in concentration camps, but still had their lives upended, lost family, and had to flee their homes due to this large-scale persecution.
Q: How many Jews were murdered in the Holocaust?
A: 6 Million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. This is the number generally recognized by Yad Vashem, most Holocaust museums, and research institutes. It comes from records kept by the Nazi regime.
Q: Only German Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, right?
A: 6 million Jews across 21 countries in Europe were murdered during the Holocaust. An estimated 4 million in concentration camps, and 2 million through mass shootings or disease. 1 million Jewish children across Europe were murdered during the Holocaust. In addition, anyone who was different or didn’t fit a specific type was persecuted, including gypsies, and people of a different race or sexual orientation then what the Nazi’s deemed “acceptable.”
Q: Non-practicing Jews were safe during the Holocaust, right?
A: No Jew was safe during the Holocaust. In watching our interviews, what you’ll often hear is the survivors’ grandchildren talk about how their grandparents were urban Jews and in some instances, they were non-practicing Jews. They were persecuted for just being born Jewish, or just marrying someone who was Jewish, regardless of their level of faith or if they viewed themselves as Jewish.
Q: Why are the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors speaking out and sharing their stories when we already have so many resources like the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem?
A: We are the last generation that will ever hear our grandparents stories firsthand, over the course of decades of our lives. The magnitude of what we witnessed in hearing their stories goes well beyond anything that can be captured from a textbook, or visiting a museum. We heard anecdotes on walks, during bedtime stories, at family dinners, we saw tears shed at holiday gatherings where their siblings, cousins, and children were visibly missing. We interviewed them over and over for school projects. We witnessed their pain, we felt their loss, and we are the beneficiaries of their resilience. With the survivor generation sadly dying out, many of us, as the last generation to hear their stories firsthand, feel an incredible sense of responsibility to make sure the world never forgets. Elie Wiesel once said “Those who listen to a witness, become a witness.” We are their witnesses for today. It is vital that the world doesn’t forget about the Holocaust, and hearing their stories from someone who might be able to relate to a younger generation today, is a gateway to learning more, to visiting museums, to watching survivor testimony. The idea behind If You Heard What I Heard, is that if you heard what I heard, you would never forget, and you would do everything in your power to make sure it never happens again - to Jews, or to any group.
Echoes and Reflections, a partnership between Yad Vashem, USC Shoah Foundation, and the Anti-Defamation League, put out a study showing:
“Students with Holocaust education have more pluralistic attitudes and are more open to differing viewpoints, which includes being more comfortable with people of a different race or sexual orientation more generally. They are also significantly more likely to report willingness to challenge incorrect or biased information (28% more likely), challenge intolerant behavior in others (12% more likely), and stand up to negative stereotyping (20% more likely). When presented with a bullying scenario, students with Holocaust education reported being more likely to offer help and were 50 percent less likely to do nothing. Students exposed to Holocaust education demonstrate higher critical thinking skills and a greater sense of social responsibility and civic efficacy if survivor testimony was part of their experience.”
— Echoes and Reflections