We need creative approaches to engage the next generation, thanks to events fading into history, antisemitism surging, and the rise in extremism of all kinds
Soon after the reunification of Germany, the Anti-Defamation League organized a leadership mission to a united Germany. One of our most significant meetings was with Dr. Rita Süssmuth, then-head of the Bundestag. One member of our group asked her about teaching young Germans about the Holocaust.
Her answer is even more relevant today than it was then.
She said that one cannot talk about that horror in the same way to the young generation as speaking to their parents or grandparents. They are too far removed from the events of World War II. What is necessary, she reasoned, are creative approaches to make the history relevant and visceral.
Süssmuth’s comment comes to mind as we observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, which is also the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. There is no doubt that more than 80 years after World War II, a variety of factors are coming together posing challenges to Holocaust memory, but all the news in this arena is not bad. It is a good time to take stock.
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Source: The Times of Israel
URL: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/taking-stock-of-holocaust-awareness-for-international-holocaust-remembrance-day/