Marking Humanity: Stories, Poems, & Essays by Holocaust Survivors. Shlomit Editor Kriger
Instead, they remained resilient and rose above the hatred and tyranny of Germany’s Nazi regime. They held onto their dreams, went on to lead productive lives, made positive contributions to their communities, and as survivor Susan Warsinger discusses in her story, rediscovered a sense of belonging.
Many Holocaust survivors have also turned their past into a force for positive change by giving lectures on war and tolerance to youth and adults of all backgrounds. They recognize that it is factors such as people’s egotism and ignorance that form the roots of evil, not—as the Nazis claimed—an entire race or country. This understanding is key, because what has remained of great concern for many people is not only what has been learned from the Holocaust, but also the possibility that such an event could recur.
The Holocaust was not just a “Jewish problem”; it touched all of humanity. Along with six million Jews, millions of men, women, and children of other backgrounds and religions were also killed. As featured survivor Tamara Deuel notes in her piece “Memories and Contemplations,” people must ask themselves, “Why?” What makes anyone worthy of such treatment, and how do perpetrators convince themselves that their actions are warranted? I urge you to then go beyond that and consider, “What now?” How far has humanity really come since the Holocaust?
According to the 2009 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents released by the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada in 2010, 1,264 incidents from across Canada alone were reported to the League that year—an increase of 11.4 percent over the 2008 figures and close to a five-fold increase in a decade.1 Furthermore, a Holocaust denial conference was held in Iran in early 2009 entitled “Holocaust? A Sacred Lie by the West,” for which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave a message of support, stating that “the Zionist regime is the ‘illegitimate child’ of the Holocaust phenomenon.”
“His words are an example of the indelible thread running through both traditional antisemitism, which historically targeted the Jew as an individual deemed unworthy of the same basic human rights enjoyed by all others, and its newer variant, which disallows the Jewish people as a collective entity the same basic right to self-determination in its own homeland as all other peoples,” stated the League in its 2008 Audit.2
While antisemitism played a significant role in the Holocaust and still haunts Jewish communities today, over the years there have also been numerous acts of hatred and violence targeting people of every background. The ways in which these acts are committed does not make them more acceptable. On September 11, 2001 the event that came to be known as 9/11 took place when al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four airplanes and crashed them in various locations in the United States, including the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Many school shootings have occurred across the globe, some of the most prominent being at Columbine High School in Colorado, Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, and Dunblane Primary School in Scotland. Some of the genocides that have transpired around the world involved Cambodia, Guatemala, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, and—ongoing since 2003—Darfur in Sudan.
Many initiatives promoting global peace and wellness have also been implemented over the years, many in response to these atrocities. But I believe that it is essential for people to continue to delve deeper into the root causes of these destructive acts. We need to target the very basics of humanity if we are to establish positive solutions that may someday put an end to the ongoing societal issues we face.
According to many spiritual teachings, people are more than their names, emotions, physical appearances, earnings, “possessions,” the ideas and beliefs that others feed them from birth … they have souls. The human body is a vehicle for the soul, allowing it to undergo various experiences on Earth aimed at facilitating its growth. Furthermore, every soul is a spark of the same “Source” or G-d. If this is the case, then what makes one person’s life worth more than another’s? The idea that people can benefit by harming others is merely an illusion. It is up to all people to work on themselves and to help care for the world. We are all on this journey together.
One of the fundamental issues that played a role in the Holocaust and connects the many incidents of discrimination, hatred, and violence across the globe is bullying. This form of abuse can often go unnoticed and be conducted in subtle ways. As a result, it can be difficult to prove. And yet, while a bully may not always be using a gun or fist to leave physical scars, words alone can aid in slowly murdering someone on the inside. The wounds inflicted by those who choose to inflate their own egos or try to solve problems through dominance and aggression can last a lifetime.
Most people can likely say that they have at least witnessed some form of abuse at some point in their lives, whether at school, in the media, within their own families, or in some other time and place. They just may not call it that because they have learned to believe that it is “normal.” But the first step toward addressing this issue is awareness. We must recognize the signs of abuse and not accept it. Furthermore, people should not have to wait until they see things happen to celebrities or hear of mass tragedies before they begin to take a deep, honest look at their own lives and surroundings and assess what could be changed.
In elementary school, I saw one of the girls in my class sitting alone in the lunchroom. She seemed like a nice person, so I decided to join her. It is not that I did not have other friends, but I did not feel comfortable seeing her all alone. We ended up becoming good friends. She was kind, intelligent, and loved to laugh.
Many of our peers, however, regularly made fun of her. I can still picture how at recess several of the boys in the schoolyard would push her onto each other and then yell, as if she was a piece of trash. Similar to victims of the Holocaust, my friend felt helpless and resistance seemed difficult.
One day, I accompanied her to the guidance counsellor’s office to report how she was being treated. I knew that she did not deserve this. Who does?
The guidance counsellor soon invited a policeman to our school to speak to the students about bullying. This helped a bit, but it did not completely solve the problem. Regardless, it was too late. My friend was torn inside from all the abuse, and in the midst of all her pain, her parents were getting divorced. She fell into a deep depression and became suicidal. I saw the cut wounds on her arms, and I knew that inside she was crying out for help. Her parents sent her to some group homes to help her heal. Thankfully, I have heard that she is now doing well and pursuing a career that she enjoys.
I sometimes wonder what would happen if I could turn back time and show the students who teased my friend what their behaviour would lead to. Perhaps they would reconsider whether the bullying was worth it. According to Dr. Debra Pepler and Dr. Wendy Craig, scientific co-directors of PREVNet—a national network of Canadian researchers, non-governmental organizations, and governments committed to stop bullying—children who bully “are experiencing regular lessons in the use of power and aggression to control and distress others.”3 Furthermore, these children “do not just grow out of it” and may later get involved in sexual harassment, dating violence, gangs, domestic abuse, child abuse, and elder abuse.4
Still, when it comes to understanding and getting through to those who bully, the issue may not always be black and white. While victims of bullying can become depressed and vulnerable, some bullies may also be suffering. As Pepler and Craig note in their 2007 report Binoculars on Bullying: A New Solution to Protect and Connect Children, “Involvement in bullying is linked with numerous health problems, including anxiety, depression, and physical complaints such as headaches and eating problems, for both children who are victimized and those who bully” (Pepler & Craig, 3). In addition, both groups of children are “at higher risk of suicidal thoughts.”5
In 2002 the United States Secret Service and the U.S. Department