By Jessica Miller, Staff Writer
Can records really capture history? One of the most infamous injustices in history is the Holocaust. Millions of people perished because of anti-Semitism and other prejudices. After more than fifty years since the Holocaust, people have been working hard to bring criminals to justices, preserve landmarks and items, bring awareness to the evils of genocide, and let survivors tell their stories in order to warn future generations.
Sadly, the time is coming where there are less and less Holocaust survivors. While people want these survivors to be at peace and to enjoy life in their final years, it does beg the question: will people remember the evils of the Holocaust after the survivors have died? Survivors for decades have been telling the frightful stories of ghettos, concentration camps, families divided, and love torn. Now that time is becoming more of a pressing matter, people are taking the initiative to record and document these survivors’ tales. “It is one thing to read about accounts from the Holocaust, but when you are able to hear of someone’s story firsthand it helps you have a connection with someone and helps you see the pain in their eyes. It’s a shame that we will not be able to see that real pain and the real fear in their voice,” said Junior Robert Vachon.
This up close and touched feeling that one gets when they hear a firsthand story can never be replaced, even with the advance technology that is ever-growing in our era. Most of these stories are captured on video or audio recordings for museums. There are a few survivors that will dress in concentration camp garb and tell all the stories they possibly can. These are made into DVDs that have sections and are often sold in museums or through organizations looking to preserve the words of the survivors. The audio recordings are often available for tours in museums to be rented through portable audio device for one or more displays in the museum. Numerous people agree that the Holocaust should never be forgotten in order to have a better future; however, there are many differences in opinion when it comes to whether we should be recording these stories.
“There are already people today who insist that the Holocaust never happened – when the survivors are no longer with us, it will be easier for generations to come to forget about the impact of the Holocaust. In order to help prevent this from happening, more documentation should be done with Holocaust survivors while they are still around,” said Junior Jessica Willing. One fear is that skeptics and future generations will look upon the Holocaust as nothing more than a factual thing, completely unemphatic because of the length of time. While other people believe we are disturbing and even making these wounds worse by asking them to record their stories.
Sophomore Ali Lavalle said, “. . . I believe that those who would like to tell their story should. . . It is time for those who remember very well to ascend into a place that will finally make them forget forever.”
Is it time for people to stop asking survivors to repeat their stories over and over again? Should they be left to live the rest of their lives in peace in order to do what they want to do without feeling pressured because society demands their stories for some greater good? Who gets to decide the rights and wrongs?
In the end, the survivors are the ones that decide their own actions. The ones that want to help future generations are more likely to seek a way to record themselves, and the ones that want to be left in peace will not look into recordings at all. There are others that say this time period is spending too much time with the past, and that humans need to look at the present and help where genocide is happening today.
“There have been many acts of genocide and many nations, cities, and tribes that have been wiped out. Their suffering has been documented, many others have not,” said Senior Kelvin Justiniano.
It is terrible to think and believe that after all that has been learned from the Holocaust that genocide is still going on to this very day. Thus, whether humans think that survivors need to be recorded or left alone, one thing that people can agree on is that genocide needs to stop in order to secure a safer and better future.
