Holocaust Remembrance Day
Silence is the enemy of good.
Today, in recognition of Holocaust Remembrance Day, I wanted to encourage this community to listen to this special episode of Raising Good Humans from April 2021.
In the episode, Jennifer Garner and I discuss developmentally appropriate ways to engage in difficult conversations about the Holocaust. If this seems like an odd conversation for me to be having with Jennifer (who is not Jewish and has no direct connection to the Holocaust), she stood in such allyship as a representative of many people out there who, despite no connection to the event themselves, want to open discussions around these historical atrocities with their children in the hopes that they never happen again.
Today, more than ever, we have to discuss these hard topics with our children. This is not just about having conversations about the Holocaust, it is about starting to engage our children early on about the risks of dehumanizing anyone. This is something we do casually in society today - whether it's a sibling with whom you don't get along or someone with a different political view.
We tend to turn people into villains when we have no other way to understand our differences. And it's dangerous.
I have personal connection to this, as the grandchild of Holocaust survivors, and every year, there are fewer survivors left in the world to tell their stories so I will continue to tell their stories. Only through telling their stories can we honor those who lived, those who died, and learn from the mistakes of the past to avoid more harm in the future.
The photo attached to this article is of my paternal grandparents, Sabina and Jack.
I remember growing up hearing the phrase #neverforget and saying, “Who would ever forget this, why are we always talking about this?” My grandmother would answer that we can never stop talking about this - that when you begin to forget one human, that is how a holocaust happens. In an interview, Mama Bina (as we call her) was once asked if she hated Nazis. She said, “If I hated the Nazis, then Hitler would have won...you don’t answer with hate, you answer by remembering and using your voice for good.” Silence is the enemy of good.
So, when someone wonders why it is important to express resistance to acts of oppression and dehumanization, it is because we have learned from history how dangerous it is to remain silent.
Today, I want to honor my grandmother, Sabina (Mama Bina) and my grandfather, Papa Jack, by reminding myself and my children to use our voices so we can say #neveragain to oppression and hate. We are all charged with the privilege of raising good humans.
Please bear witness to someone's story today, because as Eli Wiesel said in 2002, “Whoever listens to a witness, becomes a witness.”
Warmly,
Thanks for being a part of Raising Good Humans. We are in this together.