Archive: Opinions

I've heard Fred Voss talk about his experiences growing up during and surviving the Holocaust four or five times now, and it never fails to move me deeply.  But the part that he doesn't get to hear is the class discussion the next day as English Teacher June Martin asks her students to talk about how the experience effected them.  This year I listened to those reactions, and found them as moving and insightful as Voss's speech itself.

First and foremost these students get it.  They connected to Voss in a personal and up close way.  One student said she was surprised by that and it led her to reflect that when Voss's generation is gone it will be up to her own generation to continue telling his story to try to insure another Holocaust never happens.

The class discussion was honest.  One student said he couldn't relate to stories like this unless he had experienced something like it.  But most were struck by the fact that Voss was about their age when he lived through the atrocities, and they thought about what it would be like.  They questioned their own reactions if they were to suffer a similar fate.  If they had to skip their childhood to deal with such a frightening reality.

One couldn't understand how Voss's music teacher could single out a Jew in front of the class and tell other students why he should be killed.  She said a statement like that would be taken to heart by students who respect their teachers.  The abuse of power was shocking to her.

The thing is, things like the Holocaust do happen when people in general become complacent during hard times.  The current economic downturn is the perfect environment for such a thing to happen here or abroad.  People want someone to blame, and they want to take action.  Sometimes the action is productive, but all too often it is destructive.  Most people agree what happened in Germany was heinous.  But it is easy to leave it at that, to say the Nazis were monsters and it could never happen here.

That's Voss's visits here and to the many other places he gives his presentation are so important.  It could happen here if we let it.  It's important that we not let it.  One of the best ways to prevent it is to keep the story alive.

That's why I was so moved by the students' responses to Voss.  They related to him.  They liked him.  They got him.  And they started to think about what it would be like outside of their safe Lansing experience, if the world turned upside down and they were persecuted, hunted, and beaten so that others could have their scapegoats.  That personalization is what may prevent future atrocities.  I hope it will.

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