From Guest Blogger Kalil Oldham, PhD
Dear LREI Community,
During my doctoral studies in Modern European History, we read and discussed countless analyses of 20th-century Germany: the origins of World War I, the collapse of the Weimar Republic, the rise of the Nazi party, the descent into totalitarianism, the defeat of Germany and the division of the post-war German state, the process of de-Nazification, the younger generations’ struggle to accept and understand how their parents and grandparents could have let this happen. The Holocaust – and the systematic targeting of the Jewish people in particular – provides a menacing backdrop for each of these areas of historical inquiry. At the time I was struck by the realization that, in the decades before 1914, antisemitism in Germany wasn’t any harsher, any more widespread, or any more violent than it was in other parts of Europe, in the UK, or in the United States. Rather, a pervasive bigotry toward Jewish people was present in each of these societies. Why, then, did Germany (and not, say, France or Great Britain) perpetrate the Holocaust?
Scholars have wrestled with this question for 80 years, arriving at no single answer. Could the roots of Nazism be traced to Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation? To Napoleon’s victory over the Holy Roman Empire? To the failed 1848 revolutions? To Otto von Bismarck’s Realpolitik? To the shock and humiliation of defeat in World War I? To the shortcomings of the Weimar Republic? To the economic catastrophes of the 1920s? To the unique force of Hitler and the Nazi party? Historians have yet to coalesce around answers to these questions.
What we ought to agree on, however, is the importance of humility. Humility with respect to the precarity of democracy, to the resilience of liberalism, and to the durability of civil society. In 1914 many Germans viewed their society as the epitome of European civilization, in the arts, in the sciences, in literature and poetry, and in moral and ethical philosophy. Twenty years later, this epitome of civilized society had descended into previously unimaginable depths of brutality and violence. What was in many ways Europe’s most advanced, modern, and sophisticated nation quickly became its most reactionary. The Nazi regime made targets of minority groups, dissenters, and “others;” tragically, for all the grievances of the German people, the regime made scapegoats of the Jewish people. Over a few short years, the normalized, everyday bigotry faced by Jewish people in the early 20th century mutated, first into legalized discrimination and, ultimately into a relentless genocidal campaign. I hold this lesson close because it reminds us of the need for vigilance in the face of normalized bias. The preservation of a modern, liberal, pluralistic, multicultural society requires our persistent, daily attention to upholding the principles of human dignity, equality, and freedom. We must remain steadfast in our opposition to all forms of bias, bigotry, and discrimination.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is this Saturday, January 27th. The day was established in 2005 to commemorate the killing of the six million Jewish people, and millions more targeted for many reasons, at the hands of the Nazi regime. January 27th was chosen to honor the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by the USSR in 1945. For me, as a historian, as a teacher, as a parent, and as someone who cares deeply about our collective ability to continue to work toward justice, learning about the origins of the darkest chapters of our history is critically important. Understanding the Holocaust, the history of antisemitism, and the role of social justice activists in opposing oppression, are foundational pillars for understanding all systems of oppression and all efforts to defeat those systems. As memory of the Holocaust fades, we must become ever more intentional in our teaching and in our own remembering. For example, the 8th grade curriculum centered on a visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum grows in importance; as it has for previous generations, a knowledge of the history of the Holocaust underpins our students’ learning about social justice.
Tomorrow, students in the middle school will acknowledge Holocaust Remembrance Day in their homerooms, and there will be an acknowledgment in the high school during the morning meeting. I hope that many of you will come to Karamu on Saturday, where the Jewish Parents Affinity Group will present a small discovery table to help us reflect on this important day. Moreover, I hope that many of you will continue the conversation at home, in age appropriate ways. If so, we recommend the following resources:
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