Gen Z's Holocaust Knowledge Crucial for Ongoing Reconciliation

Gen Z's understanding of the Holocaust is vital for promoting reconciliation with a complex historical narrative. By engaging with this significant event, younger generations can foster empathy, challenge antisemitism, and ensure that the lessons of the past are not forgotten. This awareness plays a crucial role in shaping a more compassionate society and encourages open dialogue about historical injustices to promote healing and understanding.

Since October 7 of last year, terrorist attacks in Israel have triggered widespread death, leading to Israel's efforts to recover hostages and retaliatory actions in Gaza, culminating in a long-anticipated war in the Middle East.

As a scholar focused on Jewish and Holocaust literature, I have observed changes in how students engage with Holocaust history in the year following October 7.

Currently, 80,000 Israelis are displaced from their homes in the northern region, while over 40,000 Palestinians have lost their lives in Gaza. Following a UN expert's claim that Israel is committing acts of genocide, there have been increasing calls from UN delegates for an immediate ceasefire.

While some argue that Israel's actions are defensive, the violence has affected all Israeli citizens. As a Jewish state, the violence and hatred directed toward Israel are also impacting Jews worldwide. Many Jewish individuals find the attacks on October 7 reminiscent of Kristallnacht, as the Jewish community once again feels the need to defend their right to exist.

The definition of genocide, as recognized by the international Genocide Convention, is based on the term created by Polish-born lawyer Raphael Lemkin, who escaped persecution during the systematic genocide against European Jewry in World War II.

Globally, we are witnessing a shift in geopolitical dynamics, with both the Global South and West increasingly acknowledging pro-Palestinian viewpoints. Many members of Generation Z have quickly mobilized against Zionism.

Concurrently, there has been a rise in Holocaust denial, antisemitic hate crimes, and terrorist threats, which accompany the growing anti-Israel sentiment, resulting in alarming consequences for Jews worldwide, often fueled by propagandists aiming to exploit and intensify conflict and division.

Even prior to the past year's events, awareness of the Holocaust has declined among Gen Z individuals as the 1940s recede further into history. The methods of knowledge transmission need to evolve with the times.

In 2019, I participated as a faculty fellow in a collaboration between the Auschwitz Jewish Center and the Museum of Jewish Heritage (MJH). As a scholar, I have been fortunate to meet Holocaust survivors and learn about their experiences.

Throughout my fellowship, I grappled with the challenge of preserving the lived testimonies of survivors as their numbers decrease.

In teaching Holocaust literature and the efforts of second-generation individuals to preserve memory, I have noticed students often have limited knowledge about the Holocaust based on informal polls I conduct. Many students acknowledge their awareness is often confined to Hollywood portrayals.

Director Joe Berlinger’s recent six-part documentary, Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial, addresses the educational gaps faced by Gen Z and aims to provide solutions.

This Netflix documentary offers a distinctive approach to examining Hitler’s rise to power and its lasting impact globally.

Berlinger frames his analysis by utilizing the writings and broadcasts of journalist and foreign correspondent William L. Shirer, who authored the landmark book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich in 1960, accompanied by narration from Shirer’s granddaughter, Deirdre van Dyk.

Within the context of her grandfather’s influential coverage of the European political landscape during the 1930s and 40s, van Dyk shares insights into how Shirer discussed this era beyond his public writings.

During an online discussion panel organized by the MJH in July 2024, Berlinger acknowledged the multitude of documentaries focusing on World War II, explaining that his work is specifically aimed at preserving history while resonating with Gen Z viewers.

Van Dyk's participation plays a crucial role in connecting the present with Shirer's experiences as a witness to Nazi totalitarianism and corruption.

Likewise, second- and third-generation Holocaust survivors are vital in ensuring that their parents' and grandparents' suffering and trauma serve as warnings for current learners who will become the politicians, jurists, and educators of the future regarding the perils of antisemitism.

In Alberta, the Second Voices Project seeks to help Gen Z students understand the Holocaust authentically and not as a distant historical event.

With support from the Government of Alberta, the initiative utilizes video testimonies from survivors, paired with discussions, commentary, and insights from their children and grandchildren.

Robert Jackson, the chief counsel for the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg, remarked in his opening statement during the Nuremberg Trials in 1945:

“The wrongs we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot survive their being repeated.”

Jackson’s words now seem prophetic as society reevaluates how best to impart this crucial knowledge.

When the Second Voices Project visits secondary and post-secondary institutions, it aims to plant seeds for increased tolerance and social awareness.

During the winter 2024 semester, I witnessed the Second Voices Project in action in a Jewish literature course I taught. In this course, students explore the search for resolution in impossible situations, including reporter Erin Einhorn’s The Pages In Between.

They grapple with themes of trauma and profound loss in Cynthia Ozick’s short story The Shawl and examine how American-born Jews coped with feelings of misplaced guilt upon learning about the extent of the Holocaust.

Accompanied by a Holocaust education specialist from the Jewish Federation of Edmonton, my students met Dr. Francie Cyngiser, a retired physician and second-generation survivor.

Cyngiser’s parents survived Nazi concentration camps, and she shared her father Sidney Cyngiser’s recorded testimony from the Shoah Foundation, narrated by her son and nephew, with my class.

Sidney Cyngiser was dedicated to combating Holocaust denial by sharing his experiences. Rather than simply watching a video of Cyngiser's testimony, the documentary was contextualized for students by intergenerational survivors who were not much younger than their parents.

While Berlinger’s viewers cannot interact directly with van Dyk as my students did with Dr. Cyngiser, his documentary serves as a vital innovation to engage Gen Z audiences.

To attract this specific viewership, the Shirer family permitted the use of AI voice approximations of William Shirer’s writings for narration in Berlinger’s documentary. While original recordings from his news broadcasts are prominently featured, many of his diaries, smuggled out of Nazi Germany at great personal risk, required vocalization for the film.

By adapting their methods, Holocaust educators can also address trauma fatigue, which can hinder awareness, recognition, and response. In Germany, where Holocaust education is mandatory, feelings of frustration over inherited guilt for the Holocaust can lead to apathy and resentment.

Both pro-Zionist and critical Zionist Jews have highlighted that such attitudes are perilous in the current global context.

Apathy serves no humanitarian purpose and dangerously desensitizes all sides to the suffering of others.

The German term Vergangenheitsbewältigung refers to the ongoing process of reconciling with a troubled history. The past is a reality that all of humanity must confront, but a lack of understanding creates fertile ground for denial, revisionism, and antisemitism.

I can’t help but ponder whether greater awareness of Holocaust history and the political and cultural narratives surrounding human rights could foster more universal tolerance and compassion.

For questions or comments write to writers@bostonbrandmedia.com

Source: theconversation‍