Is talking about the Holocaust still relevant, or has it become a subject of open laughter?

In 2012 my daughter went to Poland to visit the Nazi concentration camps. There, in the midst of the horror, there is a wall with the names of the murdered. Chelminsky Jana, Chelminsky Dahika, Chelminsky Golda, Chelminsky Hilel (my father's namesake), Chelminsky Itka. Chelminsky Jakob, Chelminsky, Chelminsky, Chelminsky, Chelminsky, Chelminsky....

It is undeniable that for Jews, especially those of us born in the 20th century, who are children or grandchildren of Holocaust contemporaries, the feeling that the subject generates in us has a different connotation than it does for the rest of humanity. More raw, more real, more personal. When I grew up, the historical wounds, not that they will never heal, were still festering.

To non-Jewish people, even the most empathetic, humane and Judeophilic, the subject comes across differently. No less tragic but less personal.

For some it is a terrible page in a history book, for us it is a tattoo in our DNA.

As the years go by, the subject of the Holocaust begins to lose relevance in the world's collective culture. Far beyond the deniers and historical revisionists, for ordinary people the sting of the subject and the implausibility of the tragedy begins to fade. One tragedy among many. This year marks the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. An eternity in this world of immediacy. As ancient history as ancient history are The Crusades or the discovery of America. Material for an exam. Not current material for reflection and action.

We always assumed that the Holocaust was a universal tragedy and that its lessons would be perpetual and immovable.

Big mistake

For yes, the Jewish Holocaust is undoubtedly a tragedy of all humanity (the worst) but its lessons have not "aged well". They sound repetitive and their impact on the present is minimized.

With a few honorable exceptions, we have not been able to "modernize" what we need to know about the Holocaust so that it continues to have the currency, impact and relevance that is needed in today's world.

Is it still relevant to talk about the Holocaust, or has it become a subject of open laughter?

Can non-Jews today empathize with the tragedy that happened in "a place far away a long time ago"? Can young Jews who have it in their blood but who have this temporal remoteness find the relevance it has in the history of the Jewish people and themselves? CAN WE STILL FIND LESSONS IN THE TRAGEDY THAT ARE CURRENT AND THAT GIVE US PAUSE TO BECOME A BETTER SOCIETY?

The Jewish Holocaust has lost relevance because the traditional lessons, which we thought it encompassed, have become anachronistic in modern life.

Yes, the theory remains the same (the data and numbers and dates and "solutions" and names) and it is essential to have a basic and real idea about what happened, but the practice, what we really need to understand about the subject in order to take action, has to be different.

The basic lesson of the Holocaust has always been:
"He who does not know history is doomed to repeat it, never ever."

How can the cry of remembrance be "Never Again" if since 1945, when the war ended, we have seen thousands and thousands of tragedies that may not be equal in scale but that copied and even "improved" the systematic exterminations? How can we speak of "Never Again" in a world plagued by hate speech and discrimination and killings based on gender, religion, preferences? How can we speak of "Never Again" if we are silent participants or accomplices in the terrors of the world?

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, even knowing history , we are capable of repeating it. Worse, we are capable of making it worse.

Because the cry of Neverland, today falls short. It is "wishful thinking", magical thinking. As if things happen or stop happening by spontaneous generation.

The Never Again does not emphasize individual action and the responsibility that EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US has to take on to stop these tragedies.

(I hate to quote Arjona but) The Jewish Holocaust will maintain its relevance in human history only if it becomes a verb, not a noun.

And for me, today, here and now, the most important and relevant lesson of the Holocaust, what we have to emphasize along with the magnitude of the tragedy, was the existence of "upstanders", of thousands of people who hid, helped, saved, nurtured and acted against the Nazi regime.

They may have been a tiny number compared to the "bystanders," those who did nothing, but existed and saved lives and made a change. Heroes who exemplify the best of the human spirit.

Not just the "famous" ones like Oskar Schindler or Raoul Wallenbreg or Irena Sandler, but the thousands and thousands of anonymous, ordinary, gentle people who saved lives, often putting their own at risk, because it was the humanly right thing to do.

That is something that today, in such a cruel and convulsive world, each and every one of us can, MUST, do.

The magnitude of the tragedy of the Jewish Holocaust remains and will remain immeasurable, but its diatribe in today's life must change.

The lesson is no longer "He who does not know history is capable of repeating it. Never again". But rather "Even if we know history, we are capable of repeating it, but it is in MI that this will never ever happen again to anyone".

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