Page 12 - Witness

Image after image, story after story, statement after statement attest to the commitment of both survivors and students to build a world far different from the one Hitler sought to shape.
The Nazis wanted to build a world founded on hatred. We will build a world based on love. The Nazis wanted to use race, religion, and culture to divide people. We will accept and celebrate the diverse religions, races, and cultures that populate our world. The Nazis championed brute force and power. Our weapons will be kindness, compassion, and empathy. The Nazis descended to levels of inhuman- ity never before imagined. We will honor our common humanity.
There is a solution to the divide between Anne Frank and Bruno Bettelheim. Anne Frank, one may contend, was right for the most part. The majority of people are good at heart – but that is not nearly enough. We must also act, stand up, make a difference. Otherwise we become accomplices to the victimizers and, ultimately, enablers of Auschwitz. The Holocaust happened because of its twisted and evil perpetrators and because most of the world’s good people did not stand up tall enough or soon enough.
To listen to the survivors and to act upon what they have learned – this is the commitment of the young people who embark on the challenging journeys reflected throughout this book. By doing so, the listeners become the tellers and, in the words of one young student after hearing a survivor’s story, “the bearers of their memories.”
Eli Rubenstein
The photos and quotes in this book emanate from two similar but distinct programs: March of the Living and March of Remembrance and Hope.
The March of the Living brings high school students, the majority of whom are Jewish, from all over the world to Poland to visit once thriving sites of Jewish life and culture, as well as Holocaust-related sites. On Holocaust Remembrance Day, the stu- dents march from Auschwitz to Birkenau in memory of all victims of Nazi genocide and against prejudice, intolerance, and hate. Some groups travel to Israel after their expe- rience in Poland.
The March of Remembrance and Hope is aimed at university students of all religions and backgrounds. Its purpose is to teach about the dangers of intolerance through the study of the Holocaust and other WWII genocides. The trip includes a short visit to Germany, followed by a longer visit to Poland, including many of the same sites as March of the Living.
On both programs, Holocaust survivors share the memory of their wartime expe- riences with the young people in the very places where they unfolded.
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