05/01/2003
America Observes "Days Of Remembrance" of Holocaust
Anniversaries of Warsaw Ghetto uprising, museum establishment noted
Washington -- In communities, religious institutions, schools and other facilities across the United States, Americans paused this week to mark the annual "Days of Remembrance," the nation's collective fulfillment of its commitment to "remember" the events of the Holocaust six decades ago.
As Secretary of State Colin L. Powell emphasized in a speech delivered in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, at the official U.S. Government commemoration, "the firestorm of hate that was the Holocaust was no ordinary conflagration," but rather "a colossal act of arson, unprecedented in its scale, with genocide as its sole and evil purpose."
This year's events hinged on two anniversaries. Exactly 60 years ago, in April 1943, as the planned mass destruction of the Jews of Europe and others accelerated, a resistance to the calculated scheme erupted in the Warsaw ghetto, fueled by haphazardly armed men and women. Although this uprising did not thwart the Nazis' plans, it disrupted them for several weeks, and -- over time -- became a symbol of the intensity of humankind's survival instinct.
"The heroes and heroines of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising understood that freedom is indivisible," Powell maintained, "the birthright of every human being, and worth fighting to the last, worth fighting for to the death."
The second anniversary is the 10th birthday of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, established by an act of Congress. It opened in the spring of 1993 at a prime location, just off the fringe of Washington's central mall. In the course of its first decade, this institution has welcomed more than 19 million visitors, less than a fourth of whom are Jewish. Of the total, nearly six million have been schoolchildren. More than two million visitors have come from other countries. As a result, through the vast curriculum of educational programming, details of the Holocaust -- its causes, impact and legacy -- have become etched into the intellect and the heart of a broad array of Americans and world citizens.
"Teaching new generations about the Holocaust is not just a matter of acquainting them with the chilling facts of history," Powell explained. "It is an affirmation of our common humanity, our common suffering."
Visitors have included foreign dignitaries, law enforcement officials from home and overseas, religious leaders and students from America's inner cities. There they have encountered millions of pieces of archival materials, more than 7,000 oral histories of survivors and hundreds of hours of films and videos.
A clear reflection of the impact of the Museum came on April 29, at a ceremony entitled "American Mosaic." Diverse visitors to the facility -- a cleric from Tennessee, an English teacher from South Dakota in the American heartland, an immigrant from El Salvador and others -- explained how the information they gleaned changed their lives.
The pastor became involved in a Holocaust-rooted literacy project that is now in place in a number of U.S. states. The teacher delved into the history of South Dakota-born U.S. soldiers who were involved in liberating the concentration camps. The Salvadoran immigrant became a Museum staffer and uses its educational materials in teaching English to Spanish-speaking immigrants at her church.
A new museum exhibition, "Fighting the Fires of Hate," traces the roots and context of book burnings in Germany after the Nazi seizure of power 70 years ago, the American reaction to them in their wake, and the implications across the decades. Writers, artists, academics, union officials, clergymen and politicians were among the multitudes who denounced what Time magazine referred to as a "bibliocaust."
"Americans were deeply offended by the book burnings, which were a gross assault against their core values," museum director Sara Bloomfield recalls. "Their response was...so strong that during the war, the book burnings were used to help define the nature of the enemy to the American public."
At the ceremonies under the U.S. Capitol dome -- where the public, over the years, has mourned the deaths of presidents and other statesmen -- speakers voiced cautionary words as well as tributes.
"Is memory enough?" asked Elie Wiesel, the Nobel laureate who is, arguably, the most noted Holocaust survivor worldwide. "What does one do with the memory of immense suffering?" Everything, he urged, "depends on what one does with memory, with what we have received."
In his speech, Powell suggested a response to Wiesel's questions.
"Whatever one's calling, creed, color or country, each of us has within us the power to speak out and take action against anti-Semitism and all other forms of hatred directed against any man, woman or child on the face of the earth," he said.
"Each of us has the power to resist our human capacity for evil and embrace our God-given capacity for good. For the sake of all God's children, each of us has the power to contribute in some way to `tikkun olam' -- Hebrew for `healing the world.'"
As for the memory itself, the secretary of state stressed, it must be taken "into our own minds and hearts...Their memories must not be lost. Their memories must never fade with time. We will pass it on to our children. We will pass it on to our children's children."
The phrase that was central to this year's observance -- "for your freedom and ours" -- originated in the text of an April 23, 1943, appeal from the Jewish resistance fighters in the ghetto, delivered to the world at large. "A battle is being waged for your freedom as well as ours, for you and our human, civic, and national honor and dignity," it read.
These words were echoed throughout the various ceremonies this past week -- most tellingly, perhaps, in a reference Secretary Powell made to a sub-textual theme underlying the week's commemorations -- the war in Iraq.
The secretary of state revealed that one evening several months ago, during the ongoing deliberations in the United Nations Security Council in the days before the war ensued, Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz of Poland sent him a note, in which he pledged his government's support of whatever action Washington might take.
"The United States will not stand alone in its efforts to secure a safer world," the Polish official wrote. "In this fight `for your freedom and ours,' Poland will stand by your side."
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
