Survivors: Testimonies of the Holocaust
After hearing a
survivor speak, many students express outrage at the behavior not only
of the perpetrators but also of the bystanders. How, they wonder, could
people turn away, as friends and neighbors were stripped of rights,
possessions, family, name, and ultimately life itself? Students want to
know why no one spoke out before it was too late. An encounter with a
Holocaust survivor often illuminates the connections between history
and the moral choices students face in their own lives. They come to
realize that few events in history are inevitable. The Holocaust was
the result of choices made by countless individuals and groups. Even
the smallest decisions often had enormous consequences.
Such encounters can change the way students view history and themselves. They begin to recognize the importance of prevention - the idea that our right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is inextricably bound with their right. They begin to understand that civil liberties are not abstractions. They are real; they matter; and they require constant protection. Yet each year, fewer and fewer students are able to meet a survivor and hear his or her story. Their children and their children's children will not have this opportunity at all. Steven Spielberg founded Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation in 1994 to preserve the testimonies of survivors for future generations. Four of them are featured in Survivors: Testimonies of the Holocaust.
