HELIOLITH

It has always been interesting to me that the German word for ‘monument’ is ‘denkmal’, which simply means ‘Think!” in the imperative form.

In today’s New York Times online, Nicholas Kulish has written an article about modern Germany’s promotion of Holocaust memorials. Though this topic could easily be the work of a thousand doctoral analyses, as well as a core personal issue for millions of individuals, his piece makes a basic case that Germany for the most part is doing well in teaching the youth and in commemorating the incomprehensible scale of crime that took place. The question for me that refuses to leave after reading the piece is: “But how can you know which is the best course of action to guide Germany into a neo-nazi free future?” I’m not suggesting he could have answered that question, but wondering if it could’ve been given a bit more weight. I suppose good press for good actions is a good thing.

His first point is that Germany is very focused on keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive through memorials: “Most countries celebrate the best in their pasts. Germany unrelentingly promotes its worst.” It lists recently erected as well as newly planned memorials, including three in Berlin, one at Bergen-Belsen, at Dachau, and two that are dedicated to the terrible role of the railways in facilitating the massive genocide. Apparently Wednesday is the 75 year anniversary of when Hitler took power in Germany. The article quotes Avi Primor, the former Israeli ambassador to Germany, “Where in the world has one ever seen a nation that erects memorials to immortalize its own shame?”

I lived in Berlin in 1990, and attended a Gymnasium (high school) there, and received some instruction about the National Socialist party in school, alongside German students. The study was mindful, and my peers were open, quiet, and awed by what had undoubtedly been much a part of their education all along . I myself had the experience of Holocaust awareness day at my own school in the United States, where the curriculum was dedicated to learning about it schoolwide for a day. Seeing actual footage of some of the camps changed my entire world view with the a basic comprehension of some of the horrors that took place. One year, we were honored to see Elie Wiesel speak at my school.

Kulish suggests that, “…as the events become more remote, less personal, this society is forced to confront the question of how it should enshrine its crimes and transgressions over the longer term.” The psychological and sociological phenomenon of future generations being educated about, and honoring the terrible crimes of, their own heritage isn’t one that is often a topic of modern conversations in my experience. In the United States, the awful legacy of slavery continues to haunt and poison our social relationships, and from what I’ve seen, many American citizens refuse to adopt an attitude even mildly as humble as that which I saw in Germany. I feel like we have come less far in the 142 years since slavery was outlawed than Germany has in the 53 since the end of World War II. Clearly the scale and nature of the crimes in both countries is radically different.

Kulish writes that, “Some… say that the younger generation has tackled it as a source not of guilt, but of responsibility on the world stage for social justice and pacifism, including opposition to the war in Iraq.” I definitely witnessed a strong connection between a consciousness of the Holocaust and many young people’s rejection of the invasion of Iraq and general anti-war attitudes, but this is in Berlin, a fairly leftist city in a country that is more progressive politically and socially than the United States. I wish Kulish (or Homola) had avoided saying “Some say” and actually backed this one up with a quote.

While the article is mostly positive, it does cede that there are those who think that efforts are mostly superficial with this quote from the director of a public research group, “I can’t help but feeling that some of the continued, ‘Let’s build monuments; let’s build Jewish museums,’ is a fairly ritualized behavior… I worry terribly that it’s going to backfire.” I’d like to hear more of what this woman’s ideas are for averting a ‘backfire’. There’s a story in Sunday’s Independent which discusses how the former East German has many small towns with dwindling female populations and a large number of young men voting for the NPD, the extreme right party linked to neo-nazi groups.

My only lament is that the story didn’t focus quite enough on the challenges and concerns. The story ends on a high note, discussing how they are building the Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism, [which] is expected to open in 2011.

If the story gets archived before you get a chance to read it, you can contact me.