The Importance of Getting History Right

         "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -George Santayana. These famous words so eloquently express why we must study history. If we truly are aware of the past as it actually was, we will avoid making the same mistakes that society has made throughout human history. However, to really learn the valuable lessons of history and not repeat those mistakes, one must get history right. To distort, in any way, shape, or form, the details of historical events, is to diminish the lessons learned from history, and to therefore risk making the mistakes of the past.

          As an Orthodox Jew who feels very strongly that I am part of something larger- the story  of the Jewish people- I know very well that I must be aware of what really occurred to my people throughout history and learn not to do those same things to other people today. I, along with the entire Jewish community today, have a responsibility to raise my voice in protest of any hatred, oppression, or discrimination, directed at a minority of some sort, as someone aware of the damage that those things have done to my people throughout our history. We must learn and educate others of what occurred in Europe in the Holocaust. For if we choose to ignore what happened, or if we minimize or distort what occurred, we risk the same atrocities occurring in our time. 

        Sadly, when it come to the Holocaust, there have been those who have denied that it occurred on as large a scale as we know it did, or that it occurred entirely. Now these are not just crazy people who write about Holocaust denial online, these are educated authors and speakers who spread their theories to others, claiming to have an academic basis for their conclusions about what really occurred. They claim that much less than 6 million were killed, that the gas chambers did not exist, or that the entire Holocaust is a conspiracy pushed by Jews to gain sympathy from everyone else. It's this kind of distortion of history that not only undermines the suffering of so many people, but paves the way for the erasing of historical facts and their subsequent lessons for the rest of time. Today there are still Holocaust survivors to tell their stories and fight those that deny the suffering they endured, but by the time I am well into my adult years, that generation will no longer be able to bear witness to the atrocities done to my people. Then, even more then now, we as a Jewish people must continue to ensure that the events that occurred are being passed down so that we can keep the lessons of the Holocaust alive; the lessons that hate, discrimination, and oppression are unimaginably destructive to others and self-destructive as well, and must therefore be suppressed and battled with love and equality. 

     In later generations, if people accept that the Holocaust wasn't so bad or did not even occur, the valuable lessons will wither away. People will not understand the effects of their own bigotry and prejudices, and can allow these feelings to escalate into destruction and suffering. However, if the memory of the Holocaust in its entirety is preserved well, and we send the message to the next generation that this is what happens when we judge others for their race, religion, or ethnicity, we can prevent the worst of atrocities from occurring. We can deter others from making the same terrible mistakes that followers of Hitler and his party made, and the mistakes that every German who was influenced by hateful propaganda against Jews made. 

      As someone that must pass on the sad, terrifying, yet true story of the Holocaust to the next generation, I must understand the event in its entirety. I must read books, listen to survivors' stories, see the evidence left behind in Poland, and really comprehend the valuable lessons learned from this atrocity. With that, I, along with the Jewish and broader society, can help build a future in which we are aware of the mistakes that divided and destroyed us in the past and act accordingly.