I had the honour of attending the Horizon Holocaust Symposium and Amek Adler’s talk about surviving a concentration camp.
Considering the audience I am glad to see the school division take on the task of educating young people about the horrors of the holocaust.
They do not sugarcoat it. They do not make it “suitable” for children. For that, I thank them.
Adler spoke at length about what he had seen as a Jewish prisoner in the concentration camps, how he was treated by Nazi troops, and how it has affected his life.
He was very open about seeing people shot, seeing people dead, and surviving a three day death march without any food or water.
It was openly said that sadly this will be the last generation that will get to hear firsthand accounts from survivors of the Holocaust.
I do not know how anyone can go away from a talk like that unchanged or still blind to the plights of the world around us.
Grade 11 students from across the Horizon School Division were in attendance to hear Adler speak and as it was said in the introduction, they are the ones that should be listening. They are at the age where they can start making change.
In discussing the Holocaust and World War II either online or on the internet, it is very easy to get caught up in seeing the Nazis as some sort of evil that transcends the realm of human reality.
That is not the case.
These crimes were done by humans against humans. But the problem became that few questioned what was going on.
As Adler said, Hitler was just a man; five feet tall, 190 lb but he drove and promoted people to do the unthinkable.
“He yelled and he screamed. He was probably one of the best speakers in the world and nobody asked him any questions.”
For Hitler, the lack of response from France, Britain, and the United States to Kristallnacht in 1938 was an indication that he could do what he liked with the Jewish people, says Adler.
To the grade 11 students who were there Adler implored them to educate themselves and ask questions. To look at the world critically, question what is going on, and seek the truth.
“A lot of people can talk and tell you stories, but you need to find out if it is true. You should be not a follower. You should ask questions.”
Adler is Polish and also talked about the people who were willing to help him and his family at great risk to themselves.
Individually, they may have done little but they did what they could.
Together, they helped save hundreds, even thousands of people who were being oppressed and terrorized just for being Jewish.
These were the people willing to question the Nazi regime and what they were doing.
They did it because they knew it was right.
We should be teaching our students and children to do the same.
