Interview to CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center
Firstly I want to thank CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center for this interview. I have tried to contact the organization to try to reach Eva Mozes Kor, but I was really sad to hear that she has passed away. Eva was a Jew survivor from Auschwitz, a concentration camp, where the Nazis were killing people from different minorities and Jews, in World War II .
Listen to Eva’s history on this youtube video, “Talks at Google”:
Interview to CANDLES
Can you tell me a bit about CANDLES? What is the mission and what do you do?
In 1995, Eva Mozes Kor opened the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute, with a mission to prevent prejudice and hatred through education about the Holocaust. Thousands of people, including many school groups, have visited CANDLES since it opened. In 2003, the museum was destroyed by a hate-filled arsonist. Eva vowed to rebuild, and with the help of a generous public outpouring of support, the museum was rebuilt and reopened in 2005. CANDLES is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
The documentaries do not show a lot of how people were able to rebuild their lives after the war. A lot of people lost their belongings and family members. How were people able to stand up?
Rebuilding meant so many different things to different survivors. Many survivors lost everything -- their families, their homes, their most valued possessions. Eva returned to find their home empty but for a few crumpled photographs. For some, rebuilding meant starting a whole new life in new countries or going to build a new nation in what would become Israel. For others, it meant picking up the pieces of their old lives in their pre-war homes.
The moment that people were saved from the camp. What were their reactions, feelings and how it happened?
Based on the stories we've heard here at CANDLES, the main feeling during liberation was relief. Many knew they were safe from the Third Reich and had hope for freedom moving forward. Some were fortunate enough to get that freedom. Others ended up under the oppressive rule of the Soviet Union, trading one authoritarian for another.
A lot of Jews were killed during the war. Which minorities were killed as well? And the reasons that were pointed out to do it so?
The Nazis also targeting the Slavic ethnicities (Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, etc.), Afro-Europeans, Roma, Sinti, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, Communists, and anyone who did not fit within the ideal Nazi German society. The ultimate reason for targeting each group is that they did not fit the Nazi idea of what Germany should be.
During the war not only Jews were killed, but other minorities too, do you think what happened might have changed some misconceptions that the Jews had in the past to some minorities? Or you do not think there were misconceptions. I think about for example homosexuality.
The Holocaust may not have changed the misconceptions people had about Jews, homosexuals, or other victims of Nazi genocide, but I do believe it made the world less accepting of those misconceptions. Humankind has a tendency to come together in the wake of tragedy and to reject the ideologies that led to those tragedies. With that said, prejudices did not disappear after the Holocaust. Many Polish Jews who survived the Nazis were forced out after the war. We see now that individuals who were homosexual were drastically less likely to share their stories because homosexuality remained taboo across the world after World War II.
What do you think that this moment in history has taught us?
The Holocaust tells us, shouts at us, the importance of tolerance and understanding and the cost of hate, nationalism, and prejudice. It teaches us that that cost is too often measured in human lives, lives lost or forever steeped in the tragedies of persecution and genocide. The Holocaust teaches us the importance of questioning leaders who would seek to divide us along racial, ethnic, religious, or political lines. There are countless lessons from the Holocaust, but none are more important than the lessons of tolerance.
Do you think that are holocausts happening today? If yes, what do you think that we can do as a society to stop this?
There have been at least 20 genocides since the end of the Holocaust. To prevent them, we have to be prepared to go beyond what makes us feel comfortable. Having conversations about the suffering of others is never easy, but they are conversations we must learn to have. We have to be willing to hold our leaders accountable for our obligations to protect others around the world who cannot help themselves. The USA and most European nations are signatories to the 1948 UN Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and backed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We have moral, ethical, and legal obligations to stop genocide and should ensure we stand ready to do so.
What values we should cultivate to young people?
We must teach young people the value of having an open mind. We must show them that the strength of humanity is in our diversity. We must show them that tolerance and acceptance will carry us further than hate and prejudice ever could. Above all, we must teach them the cost that hate carries not just in terms of human lives but in terms of the scars it leaves on humanity.
Do you think that schools should speak about it in a different way?
I think that depends on the schools. Many schools in Germany do a fantastic job of teaching the realities of the Holocaust and the failures within German society that allowed it to happen. Elsewhere around the world, including the United States, it is important to just make sure schools are speaking about the Holocaust in a substantial way. Too often, school systems can get by with only mentioning the Holocaust in passing in a single class. It is important to expand that to teach not only what happened but why and that can happen again -- and has already.
What is hope based on what happened?
The hope from the Holocaust comes from two main places: The ability of survivors to persist and rebuild and the countless people who did whatever was in their power to alleviate the suffering of those oppressed by the Nazis.
Every survivor story is a story of resilience. Each survivor had to rebuild his or her life after the Holocaust and did so in his or her own way. The fact that survivors could see the epitome of human depravity and continue onward shows that there is hope in even the darkest situations.
The second source of hope comes from the rescuers and those who worked to alleviate the suffering of Holocaust victims. They show us that, even when the worst impulses of humanity have taken hold, there are always going to be those willing to risk everything to help others.
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You can donate on bellow link for the CANDLES and help them to keep their mission.
@Walkieman
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