Remembering is Not Always Enough

I have found some quotes regarding ceremonies held over the past couple of days for Holocaust Remembrance (April 18) and the fifty-year anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis (April 19). I thought others might find these interesting in light of today's political climate.

"Daniel Barocas, the 22-year-old grandson of two survivors from Poland, said he had made a conscious effort to attend [memorial] ceremonies in recent years, 'The reality of the Holocaust is too difficult to consider,' he said. 'This gives you the opportunity to listen and to ask questions.' 'And to remember,' added his grandmother, Kalima Kleinberg."

The New York Times, Monday, April 19

"Jeremy A. Dauber '95, chair of the Hillel coordinating council, said the ceremony was an attempt to remind people of the... the Holocaust so that it can never happen again."

The Harvard Crimson, Saturday, April 17

"We will never again allow this to happen." Mayor David N. Dinkins

The New York Times, Monday, April 19

The common thread of these statements attests to a commitment to prevent the repetition of genocide. I recognize the right of those slaughtered in, as well as those who survived, the Holocaust, to be remembered and honored with our prayers and our tears. Yet one crucial question needs to be asked loudly. If remembrance is to be used for remembrance's sake only, rather than applying the lessons of history to contemporary political decision-making, what is the practical use of it?

What the speakers quoted above, like many important political figures seem to have not remembered is that genocide is occurring once again. As of today, an estimated 100,000 have died and a million people have been displaced during the war raging in the Balkans. Yet I struggle with my disbelief at the inaction of those of us who hope to erase genocide from the planet, from President Clinton to the politically and religiously active communities at Harvard. How dare we sit back and proclaim with self-assurance that our ceremonies, will prevent--and indeed, are currently preventing--genocide from taking place again? Until we assure that genocide is not happening anywhere, until our reminders stir us to action, our ceremonies will be in vain.

In The New York Times of April 16, a 72-year-old Holocaust survivor recounts his thoughts during the Warsaw uprising: "We thought that if there was an uprising, some shooting back, somebody would wake up. But nobody did. No help came."

I can only shudder when I imagine how many Muslims, Croats and, yes, even Serbs are wondering how much more "shooting back" must continue until America and its allies--composed of people like you and me--wakes up from its murderous slumber. Dominique Padurano '93