It’s been an interesting time for my family in terms of learning more about our clan. My nephew had a school project on family histories. My mother shared a story as she worked on it with him and my sister. The first story piqued my brother’s interest, prompting requests for more, which I suspect served as a great diversion from the tension he experienced. Also, my mother recently turned 70. As the dutiful daughter of the oldest of 13, who ran a dairy that employed and boarded them all as she grew up, she knew a lot of the “old ones” during the prime of their youths and is very conscious of her role as the link between generations.
Knowing who you’re from contributes to knowing who you are, she’s always believed. Motivated by the desire to pass on information she doesn’t want to end with her before she is too infirm to do so, we have enjoyed an avalanche of family stories: of the passage from the “old country” to settling here, of my grandfather’s championship boxing days, of life during World War II. Some we’ve heard many times, many were new. She also unearthed old photos and letters from the 1920’s through the 1940’s, including the letters from my uncles who served in Europe during World War II.
Also during this time, I watched a Book TV program with authors, grandchildren of survivors of the Holocaust, who wrote books based on the same kinds of family stories. Like me, they grew up with repeated stories of family members that prompted them to investigate further, taking them back to villages in countries in Western and Eastern Europe.
They noted something that I’ve been feeling since I went to the Holocaust museum in Washington with my son and heard the witness speak: that the ones who experienced World War II are leaving us at an increasing rate, and from now on, beyond my generation, people will learn about the Holocaust and World War II from history books only. We will no longer have the force and legitimacy of eyewitness accounts, of living people still carrying tattoos.
I’m distressed by the news that Iran is holding a Holocaust conference, mostly because they believe it is Jewish propaganda to justify the Israeli state. Now, how is this local, one (my editor) might ask? Yes, this is on the other side of the world, and could be easily dismissed as just more insanity from the Middle East. But we have our own local nut cases here, and you can count on them to emerge soon, encouraged by stupid stuff like this.
I reread the Morgan Hill Times article on the Holocaust denial of the local National Socialists, and was appalled at the ignorance of the claims that there was no evidence of torture chambers and no record of 6 million being lost (completely ignoring the fact that the Nazis themselves were so anal and organized that they themselves provided most of the extant record keeping, the photographing and the filming). It is the kind of thing I would have shaken my head at and not given a second thought to as stupid and crazy before.
Fortunately, over the last 15 years, we have had museums erected around the world with this evidence. There are Web sites that debunk their misinformation. There is a cadre of historians who are organized and publish to combat in academia and the public domain those who perpetrate the lie that the Holocaust is a myth.
Unfortunately, we have freaks among us that totally ignore and twist the truth to serve their own warped world view. And we will have younger people who didn’t grow up with stories, didn’t grow up among families who cared to have them know world history or their own, who will believe anything.
In the coming years, we will need more effort from the entire community. Certainly, we will need the schools’ history sections to teach beyond the two state standards that address this in sophomore and junior years and start earlier. With all the emphasis on math and science, the study of history and what makes us human gets short shrift and we can’t let it. We also need effort from those of us who had contact with those who suffered in camps, and those who liberated them to help the world to “never forget.”
We already are led by someone who ignores the lessons of history. We need to make sure we don’t allow the freaks to have any influence and take us down that path again.
Columnist Dina Campeau is a wife, mother of two teens and a resident of Morgan Hill. Her work for the last seven years has focused on affordable housing and homeless issues in Santa Clara County. Her column will be published each Friday. Reach her at
dc******@ch*****.net
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