Trying to explain all of this to future generations is not an easy task. The survivors are dying off, and while their stories are being recorded, that also is not sufficient. Ways are needed to explain the terrible moral lapses that occurred in language younger people can understand.
Shoes and Names
I was curious about whether I was right that it is objects more than words that help bring these terrible historic events home to young visitors. One approach I have seen used at museums involves having the visitors come to an area filled with shoes. Each pair of shoes represents one dead person. Seeing a pile of shoes, you get a better appreciation of the magnitude of it all. When visiting the Holocaust Museum on April 26, I made a point of watching the reactions of teenagers and children to the exhibits. Along one hallway, etched in glass, are the names of some of those killed in the Holocaust. As I stopped to try to take this all in and digest it, two teenager girls walked by.
“What are all those names?” one asked.
“Are these all victims? Oh my god!”
Well said, girls.
Sure enough, there was a huge pile of at least 1,000 shoes and it got the attention of a girl walking by with her mother. The girl asked, “How did they get all of those shoes?” I did not hear her mother’s response but whatever her explanation about what the shoes represented, the girl’s response said it all: “Ew!”
A poem is printed above the pile of shoes, a poem by Yiddish poet Moses Schulstein:
"We are the shoes, We are the last witnesses
We are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers.
From Prague, Paris and Amsterdam
And because we are only made of fabric and leather
And not of blood and flesh,
Each one of us avoided the Hellfire"
Sharing Stories
I always looked forward to writing about Holocaust survivors who would go out of their way to tell their stories as often as possible to people, in hopes their stories will not be forgotten. Looking back, I am embarrassed at my attempts to understand and connect with them. I remember asking one if he had read Maus, Art Spiegelman’s award-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust. I was reaching for a cultural vantage point to connect. That seems shallow to me now. With a sense of purpose, I would share their stories via my articles, although it was always difficult to convey all the pain and frustration they suffered in the 15 or less paragraphs I was allotted in the newspaper. Coincidentally, it was again shoes that helped explain one part of the World War II story: The American soldiers memories of it.
Article comments
1 - Purple Tigress
Maybe we cannot truly understand what is was like, but it is somehow comforting to know that some people stood up for their neighbors while others let their neighbors be taken away just because they were Jewish, gypsies, gay or communists.
I think we should all question ourselves to see if we would have had the courage to stand up for others, for what is right as opposed to what is easy and what gives us the best deal.
In the world now, we have similar situations and we cannot, should not ignore them.
I recently saw a play called, iWitness, about a man who died because he would not join the army. He was thought a fool at the time but now he is considered a moral hero, almost a saint. He was Catholic. All he had to do was wear a Nazi uniform as other Austrians did, but he refused.
Quite impressive to die not because your life and your family's lives are threatened but because the lives of unknown others are. That's something that most people, no matter how religious, would not choose to do.
2 - Scott Butki
I should note that hate as well as Holocaust deniers still exist.
In fact, a local KKK group is holding a rally soon at the Antietam National Battlefield.
There is a good editorial on the topic in the local newspaper.
It points out that the location is ironic since it was a moment near the end of the confederary in the Civil War.
3 - Purple Tigress
Even the Northerners were racist and the Civil War did free the slaves but was originally fought over the right to secede from the Union.
Actually, I found this essay quite moving. One of the reasons I mentioned iWitness was because the production I saw used the imagery of shoes.
I also recall when I was younger that I, too, thought that just because I had read a book or two, that I could truly understand, but now that I'm older, I know I cannot.
4 - Barb
The moldy smell of the shoes at the Museum leaves an imprint on the brain of this visitor.
Unforgettable.
5 - Scott Butki
Definitely.
6 - Scott Butki
Have others been to this museum?
7 - Scott Butki
So how are others honoring the anniversaries?
8 - Scott Butki
I led a discussion tonight of Paper Clip.
Here's the link to the movie site:It a great discussion, spanning 3 or 4 generations, and I'll be writing up a review within
the week. I'm also working on getting an interview with those in making what I consider
the most inspiring movie I've seen in several years.
9 - Victor Plenty
The Civil War was fought over slavery. The "right to secede" was an effort to preserve slavery. Nothing more, nothing less. When people seek to distort the memory of historic events, some will resist and some will capitulate.
Did the Holocaust really happen? Dishonest people want you to doubt it really happened. Was the American Civil War really about slavery? Dishonest people want you to doubt it really was. I choose to resist both strains of ideological revisionism, along with many others.
Thank you for your continuing work to keep the memory of history alive, Scott.
10 - Scott Butki
You are welcome. I have another, related piece in the pipline as I write this.
11 - Scott Butki
Thanks. I'm glad you liked my piece. I'll check out your page shortly.