The Holocaust

Today I visited a Holocaust exhibit at my Temple. It was a collection of letters, stamps, money, and other types of artifacts that lived through the Holocaust. The collection belonged to a very wealthy man, whose name I forgot. He looks a little like Borat and is altogether quite hyper. However, he spoke to some members of the congregation about the artifacts that he had collected. Each piece had a story behind it, and it was so interesting to actually see how history could be applied to real life. The Holocaust was much more than numbers and facts. It was about people. It was about their personality, their family, their life. Each of those six million Jews who was murdered had their own story. Each of them had their own background, and it was powerful to see actual things they had written on and used during this tragic time in history. It was not the most heavy Holocaust presentation or moment I've experienced, but it was strong nonetheless.

The man and Dr. Feller, a member of our congregation, talked about the Holocaust in ways which I've never even heard of. They brought in new angles of the Holocaust story that I hadn't thought of in a very long time. For example, one postcard came along with some money. The postcard said something like, "Here is your due for this month for entertaining the men." It was a letter from one concentration camp called Ravensbruck to Buchenwald. Ravensbruck was a women's camp, and it was found that many of the women were sent to other camps to "entertain" the Nazi workers in brothel-like buildings. This postcard is proof of the sex-slavery that occurred during the Holocaust. Who knew?

Among the artifacts was a piece of Torah scroll. The piece was ripped out of the Torah (the most holy scripture in the Jewish faith) in a synogogue in Russia that the Germans had taken over. It was used as parchment, for a German troop wanted to send a package to his family in Austria. He used the most holy parchment to do this like it meant nothing. Since it went through the German mail it was stamped with a Nazi stamp. A Nazi stamp on the Torah- one of the most symbolic pieces of history I think I have ever directly encountered. It was overwhelming.

I thought I was pretty knowledgeable about the Holocaust, but there's so much more. They opened up some doors for me that I really want to take. I really want to learn more about the Holocaust now, and I want to really understand it. Perhaps the Holocaust is so compelling to me because I am Jewish and I am usually the only Jew in one given place at one time (i.e. I'm the only Jew in my whole Junior class of 408 people). At the presentation, Dr. Feller was saying that I was the most important person there because I was the youngest. He's absolutely right. When everyone else in that room is gone from this world, it is my responsibility to keep the remembrance of the Holocaust alive. It's so important to remember the Holocaust. It is everyone's responsibility to remember how awful it was for everyone. Not just Jews, but everyone's. I cannot wait to tell my children and my grandchildren about the Holocaust. I want them to know about it. I want them to be able to understand it and its complexity. It's so important.