Why we’re forgetting the Holocaust

[graciew]

Oh yes,I read that and it is a very good idea.
You know,one asks and sometimes our kids are not in a mood to answer, and that is fine.
But when conversations come up,and we can see faces lighting up,participating,sharing,discussing,oh well,that is a.moment when everything makes sense.
I loved to be " attacked" with copybooks and all the news of the day when they were little.
Then one kind of has to find the moment ,it is different when you grow older.
You sound quite extrovert it makes it easier,not everyone is like that,some kids need their time.

 

[HolySpirit]

I know that at minimum, parents should at least be asking kids at the dinner table what they did at school today. I was just offering a possible solution to a poster who suggested that that might not be enough.

I would not suggest parents take over schools. While I would like to see more involvement, some parents work multiple jobs or don’t speak English, or can’t get involved for some other reason, so you would have certain groups of students underrepresented.

Like everything else, balance is the key. In general, I would err more on the side of parents. I think school boards today are doing more harm than good.

Conservatives need to get involved on school boards at the local and state levels. Common sense important things are no longer taught. Children are no longer remotely prepared for the real world.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

How much do millennials know about World War II? I wouldn’t even bother asking about World War I. I think, as a group, their knowledge of historical events is sorely lacking.

Yeah, the main reason people don’t know about the Holocaust is that it gets more and more distant in time and less relevant to people.
Plus, there are literally dozens of genocides that people have even less familiarity with than the Holocaust, which has had so many movies and books about it compared to something like the Armenian genocide.

 

[thephilosopher6]

What about the Armenian Genocide? The only genocide that’s ever talked about is the holocaust, it seems that others have been forgotten even more.

 

[graciew]

I would not suggest parents take over schools. While I would like to see more involvement, some parents work multiple jobs or don’t speak English, or can’t get involved for some other reason, so you would have certain groups of students underrepresented.

You sound very reasonable.
I will tell you a bit further. Taking over means that a school cannot give a proper response to the expectations of each and every parent. A school has its mission statement, a proposal. Sometimes parents get involved to the point of telling the school what they should do. Imagine this multiplied…
That is why the school has to be very clear,and not try to catch every fly that flies,particularly private schools. It turns into a boomerang. You say " yes" to what each parent wants to hear and then you won’t be able to comply with all.
That is more what I meant.
And about not speaking the language,yes,it is a drawback,but surmountable with time.
This just in my experience

 

[Vonsalza]

Oh my goodness this is horrifying that people are forgetting about this!

We must eventually move beyond the horrors of history.

If we didn’t, we’d have some truly awful holiday to “remember” every single day.

No thanks.

 

[mVitus]

We must eventually move beyond the horrors of history.

If we didn’t, we’d have some truly awful holiday to “remember” every single day.

No thanks.

Some things should not be forgotten. The Holocaust is one of those. It should never happen again.

As for my school education about the Holocaust, I’m pretty sure we learned at least a little about it in my Catholic grade school. At the very least I learned some stuff at a young age since I remember asking my father something about it and getting what I now realize was a ‘cushioned’ answer so I must’ve been young enough for him to think I wasn’t ready to know the full horror. In middle school, we spent a decent chunk of 8th grade learning about it and read The Cage in addition to watching The Pianist. I will grant however that I still think one section of that was done in a bad way.* But it was mostly a good way of going about it and I remember a survivor was invited who shared his story. And in high school I’m pretty sure we went over it again, though not as much as in middle school.

*The reason I say it is because they brought in actors from the local theater for 3 days at the school and a 4th at an Anne Frank Play. Their heart was in the right place, but they didn’t tie things well (it wasn’t even mentioned why they were there until day 3) until the end which meant the first part lost meaning.

 

[Vonsalza]

Desperation will make people do anything; like following a racist psychopath because he’s charismatic.

They can do it again regardless what you try and remind them.

Read Ordinary Men. These fellows that were horrified by what they were doing eventually got used to it. And they were your brother, father and sometimes son.

 

[gracepoole]

Because the liberal academics who make up the curriculum for High Schools and Elementary Schools no longer stress the importance of holocaust study. The plight of Jews is becoming an afterthought.

The holocaust is now equated with the lives of Palestinians in Israel for an entire generation of American school children.

Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it, and you can see it on college campuses across the US. Antisemitism is now almost acceptable in liberal academia. Read the comment section on any news site like MSNBC, Yahoo, or CNN. You will see countless comments that would have caused people to be shunned 20 years ago.

It is very sad.

The truth is that since Common Core started being rolled out, there isn’t as much time in curriculum to permit discussions of the Holocaust. There are only a handful of states that have mandated Holocaust education, as well.

 

[gracepoole]

What about the Armenian Genocide? The only genocide that’s ever talked about is the holocaust, it seems that others have been forgotten even more.

“Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
– Hitler, August 1939

I posted this a few days ago in the World News thread on this same topic:

Virtually no one wanted to talk about the Holocaust in its immediate aftermath. Jews were among the first to do so. The first Holocaust memorial was created in Israel. Jewish communities have kept the memory alive even when others haven’t wanted to remember. I often hear people complaining that we don’t speak enough about other victim groups, or that we don’t speak enough about other genocides. The reality is that most Americans, at least, have very little interest in discussing genocides. How many know of what’s happening to the Rohingya currently? How many are interested in reading books and studying any genocide in depth? Also reality is the fact that while many Americans think they’re educated about the Holocaust, they’re not. They accept multiple myths about it that have been categorically disproved. This thread is evidence of that to some degree.

Study shows Americans are forgetting about the Holocaust World News

Virtually no one wanted to talk about the Holocaust in its immediate aftermath. Jews were among the first to do so. The first Holocaust memorial was created in Israel. Jewish communities have kept the memory alive even when others haven’t wanted to remember. I often hear people complaining that we don’t speak enough about other victim groups, or that we don’t speak enough about other genocides. The reality is that most Americans, at least, have very little interest in discussing genocides. …

 

[HolySpirit]

That is a huge problem. I am in my mid 40’s and I can remember spending time on the Holocaust every year from probably the 3rd through 8th grades and in different High School classes. As early as 5th grade, we were watching films about it. (Maybe earlier.)

Every year we would have a concentration camp survivor come in to the classroom.

You should not receive a High School diploma without having an understanding of the Holocaust.

If for nothing else, it would change the way liberals view people with handicaps. To have Eugenicists discuss how it is moral to murder children with Downs Syndrome in the womb in the editorial pages of the New York Times in the year 2018 is repugnant.

 

[Ericj5592]

This is because of television. I wish the world was a better place

 

[HolySpirit]

thephilosopher6:

What about the Armenian Genocide? The only genocide that’s ever talked about is the holocaust, it seems that others have been forgotten even more.

“Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
– Hitler, August 1939

I posted this a few days ago in the World News thread on this same topic:

Virtually no one wanted to talk about the Holocaust in its immediate aftermath. Jews were among the first to do so. The first Holocaust memorial was created in Israel. Jewish communities have kept the memory alive even when others haven’t wanted to remember. I often hear people complaining that we don’t speak enough about other victim groups, or that we don’t speak enough about other genocides. The reality is that most Americans, at least, have very little interest in discussing genocides. How many know of what’s happening to the Rohingya currently? How many are interested in reading books and studying any genocide in depth? Also reality is the fact that while many Americans think they’re educated about the Holocaust, they’re not. They accept multiple myths about it that have been categorically disproved. This thread is evidence of that to some degree.

Study shows Americans are forgetting about the Holocaust - #35 by gracepoole

Are you inferring that we should not be discussing the Holocaust? Are you inferring that the Holocaust is in any part, Jewish Propaganda?

Exactly what has been denied? Are you saying that the Jews should be marginalized and leave the middle east? By and large Fascist and Nazis are the people who call the Holocaust myths. Do you find yourself in agreeement with them?

 

[gracepoole]

Are you inferring that we should not be discussing the Holocaust? Are you inferring that the Holocaust is in any part, Jewish Propaganda?

Exactly what has been denied? Are you saying that the Jews should be marginalized and leave the middle east? By and large Fascist and Nazis are the people who call the Holocaust myths. Do you find yourself in agreeement with them?

How on earth did you come to these conclusions from my post?? I was attempting to explain why the Holocaust is remembered and discussed – victims themselves and their communities determined that it must be remembered and discussed. And I explained that often, people who don’t think they know as much about the Holocaust as they think. More’s the pity.

For what it’s worth, my career revolves around Holocaust education. I’m an endowed chair of Holocaust studies, I teach courses in Holocaust literature and the social psych of the Holocaust each semester… Count me somewhat speechless in response to your accusations here.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

The reality is that most Americans, at least, have very little interest in discussing genocides.

It’s too hard for a lot of them to deal with. People can’t even handle seeing one person get shot (even justiffiably) on a news broadcast. Millions or even thousands of humans killed by some regime overwhelms people’s circuits.

I always think of that woman who wrote “The Rape of Nanking” and then ended up committing suicide. It may well be that she had other psychological problems, but I’m sure having to go through all of that research material on genocide did not help. She was also researching a new book on the Bataan Death March when she died. I’ve had times of doing death penalty research and I would read through about 10 death penalty appeal opinions and feel slightly nauseated by the end of the day even though I read true crime all the time and thought I was plenty tough. It’s just hard for people.

 

[gracepoole]

gracepoole:

The reality is that most Americans, at least, have very little interest in discussing genocides.

It’s too hard for a lot of them to deal with. People can’t even handle seeing one person get shot (even justiffiably) on a news broadcast. Millions or even thousands of humans killed by some regime overwhelms people’s circuits.

I always think of that woman who wrote “The Rape of Nanking” and then ended up committing suicide. It may well be that she had other psychological problems, but I’m sure having to go through all of that research material on genocide did not help. I’ve had times of doing death penalty research and I would read through about 10 death penalty appeal opinions and feel slightly nauseated by the end of the day even though I read true crime all the time and thought I was plenty tough. It’s just hard for people.

So true. I often have to remind students how to step away from their studies because I worry about their well being. When she first began studying the Holocaust, a colleague asked me how to avoid “being swallowed up by the darkness.”

 

[HolySpirit]

Also reality is the fact that while many Americans think they’re educated about the Holocaust, they’re not. They accept multiple myths about it that have been categorically disproved. This thread is evidence of that to some degree.

It comes primarily from this section of what you stated…

Also reality is the fact that while many Americans think they’re educated about the Holocaust, they’re not. They accept multiple myths about it that have been categorically disproved. This thread is evidence of that to some degree.

What myths are you referring too? Most myths I hear about the Holocaust comes from people who adhere to Nazi and Faciest ideologies.

By the way, I did not accuse you of either. I asked if you identified with them.

If I caused offense, I appologize, unless of course you want to tell me that the Holocaust was a myth.

 

[gracepoole]

HolySpirit:

Also reality is the fact that while many Americans think they’re educated about the Holocaust, they’re not. They accept multiple myths about it that have been categorically disproved. This thread is evidence of that to some degree.

It comes primarily from this section of what you stated…

Also reality is the fact that while many Americans think they’re educated about the Holocaust, they’re not. They accept multiple myths about it that have been categorically disproved. This thread is evidence of that to some degree.

What myths are you referring too? Most myths I hear about the Holocaust comes from people who adhere to Nazi and Faciest ideologies.

By the way, I did not accuse you of either. I asked if you identified with them.

If I caused offense, I appologize, unless of course you want to tell me that the Holocaust was a myth.

Good Lord, no, I don’t want to tell you or anyone that the Holocaust was a myth. I’m just about to enter discussions of denial and justice in my courses to ensure that my students don’t wind up believing that garbage either.

The “myths” to which I referred to are numerous and one of them was being circulated in the other thread to which I linked (i.e., if the Third Reich hadn’t taken guns away from citizens, the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened). Another popular myth is that bystanders couldn’t have done anything, and that they were all brainwashed and that’s why they failed to stop the Holocaust. Another is that SS officers, members of police battalions and mobile killing squads, etc. had to kill victims or they would have been killed themselves. Again, often people think they know the Holocaust when in fact they don’t.

Respectfully, just because the word “myth” appears doesn’t mean you’re dealing with a denier. A quick peek at the thread to which I linked would have demonstrated as much.

 

[Jump4Joy]

So one school is evidence that these statistics are wrong

 

[redbetta]

From Wikipedia, only five states mandate Holocaust education. That probably explains the statistics.