Smoke and Mirrors
“Teresenstadt was a camp that was all smoke and mirrors,” exclaimed my tour guide Pavel Stransky. Several years ago I had the opportunity to tour the Nazi camp of Terezin, in what is now the Czech Republic. It was here that I saw first hand the ‘smoke and mirrors’ that Mr. Stransky alluded to. Everyday the Jews of Terezin lived in horrific living situations, suffering from spreading diseases such as typhus, tuberculosis and starvation. But on the day that the International Red Cross was to visit the Terezin Camp it appeared to be a very different place. On this day children were playing, the unhealthy were replaced by the healthy, musicians performed, sports were being played and people were gardening. On this day bakeries were stocked with food, and the prison bathroom was outfitted with new sinks (of course they were never hooked up to water) for shaving. The deception was so complete that the Red Cross concluded that the Nazi’s were treating the Jews of Terezin reasonably well. It was only in the 1970’s that the Red Cross apologized for their oversight. It was not only the oversight of the International Red Cross, it was humanities oversight.
Was the wool pulled over the eyes of the world? Did no one know of the Nazi’s intentions for the Jews? With binders on The International Red Cross missed all the warnings signs, as did the United States and Great Britain for years. As Hitler moved toward destruction of the Jewish race, the United States government remained a bystander, slow to act. There was evidence that came from both official and unofficial sources informing Americans of the horrors being conducted abroad. The lessons of the Holocaust teach us so much . Most importantly, it teaches us that we must always remember what happened so that history does not repeat itself. We must never again have our head in the sand. And yet, even after the greatest atrocity that has befallen the Jewish people, genocide still took place around the world in Darfur, in Bosnia, and in Rwanda, and there is no excuse for inaction on the part of civilized nations. There is no excuse for apathy, and persecution of a people because of their ethnicity.
As six million Jews were systematically exterminated, much of the world simply buried their heads in the sand. Eventually, the world stood up against the Nazi onslaught, but for millions it was too late. The thing that is most upsetting today is the number of Holocaust deniers and revisionists gaining traction. The Holocaust denier puts forth a revised version of history to legitimize their radical ideology. The thing that is most disturbing is that today we can still witness anti-Semitic acts taking place around the world. In Europe, synagogues are being defaced, and cemetery headstones are painted with swastikas. A Jewish deli in Paris is attacked. In the Middle East Israel has to contend with, “an ayatollah regime, …that knowingly and openly calls for the elimination of at least another six million Jews, and yet nobody says a word.” (Jerusalem Post 1/26/2011) Unfortunately on college campuses in the United States, and even on our campus, anti-Semitism has reared its ugly head. So we find that simply remembering the Holocaust is not enough, more must be done.
Every school in the United States must teach the history of the Holocaust as part of its curriculum. We must remember the victims of the Holocaust on college campuses though lectures, through film, and at places like the US Holocaust Museum. At every turn, the Holocaust deniers need to be debated and debunked because the survivor’s will not be around forever to address the problem.
At this time in history the smoke and mirrors has been lifted, and we must recognize the issues of anti-Semitism and genocide and make every effort to combat it.