Why study the Holocaust?

As the "Gypsy" Wagon Museum Display travels around Iowa every summer, the question I am asked most often is "Why does the Holocaust matter now? It's over." I get this same question at lectures as well. Why can't we, the human race, forget about the Holocaust? Why should we continue to look at those terrible pictures? Why remind ourselves of the horrors of the Third Reich when Nazism is a thing of the past? Surely no civilized nation or the UN would stand for a resurgence of the Nazi regime in Germany or any country. Why can't we let the dead rest in peace.

This question both frustrates and amuses me. Amusement because Americans pride ourselves in being a world power, a "Super Power" at that. We are the World's Police Force, ready to fight for right wherever we are needed. And yet most Americans have no idea what is really going on in the world. Our press hardly covers world events unless it involves a scandal with the royal family of England or some celebrity married or divorced.

We, as Americans, are obsessed with the Kardashians, the Hiltons, and "Real" Housewives of Beverly Hills, and Snookie. We love a good train wreck. We enjoy watching the rich and famous makes fools of themselves on national television. But who is laughing? We watch the shows, shake our heads at the drama those people call their lives, yet those people are the ones cashing the checks, scoring big at the bank.

What is really going on in the world? Do we, as Americans, really know? Do the citizens of the country claiming to be the World's Police have any idea what happens outside our borders?

No.

I can say this with conviction because everywhere I've lectured this year, people are stunned at the data I present.

"Sterilizations? This is 2012! How can that be going on now?"
Answer: "Its been going on since the early 1970's."

"Fingerprinting and photographing? Hitler did that. This is the Twenty-first century! It isn't done anymore!"
Answer: "It began in Italy in the Twenty-first century. While the practice has been condemned by the EU, no one in the U.S. knew about it until the program ended."

"Romani kids not allowed in the schools in the Czech Republic? It's a civilized country!"
Answer: "That civilized country was ordered by the Court of Human Rights to allow Romani children in schools...over five years ago and has failed to follow through with that order. PS: The Czech Republic writes human rights policy for the United Nations and holds this charter until 2014."

The list goes on and on and people everywhere are always surprised.

When the question arises of Holocaust remembrance, I always ask what the students already know of Nazi experience. What were the steps of dehumanization? How did the Nazis prepare German citizens for the destruction of the "lesser" races? Most students answer this question correctly.

Answer: It began slowly. The public was treated to a mass propaganda effort that compared the Jews and other lives unworthy of life to vermin that must be destroyed; rats in the sewers. Then they lost their rights, their jobs, their possessions, their homes. It was a gradual process that few Germans protested. It allowed the citizens of Germany to claim ignorance years later.

Why is this important? Can we learn anything from history?
Answer: Yes. We can see the process of how the Nazis came to power so we can recognize evil.

And yet, Americans do not see the very same process happening in Europe right now, in countries we would considered civilized. The leaders of France, Italy, the Czech Republic, England, Germany; are all very  educated. They are not running their countries based on fear and intimidation. Or are they?

Now that the United States has observer status in the Decade of Roma Inclusion, the American press must take notice of world events, events that are indeed relevant to life and human rights. We, as citizens and as customers of the American press, must demand of our news sources to report the news and leave the Kardashians to Entertainment Weekly.