Bearing Witness to Jewish Trauma

School curricula, films, TV, and popular culture in the US have tended to universalize and sanitize Holocaust history, making our efforts to remember Jewish trauma also—at least to some extent—a way of forgetting it.

On Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), I invite you to consider that ubiquitous cultural images of the Holocaust--Anne Frank, barbed wire, railway cars, crematoriums, and piles of shoes--have probably taught you very little about a traumatic past whose full meaning eludes our comprehension.

While you reflect on that, here's what you can do to stand against hate and the banalization of the Holocaust:

🪬1. Don’t trivialize. Just because Jerry Seinfeld joked about soup Nazis doesn't mean you should. Think twice before making inappropriate comparisons or wielding accusations that a repressive person or policy is equivalent to Hitler or the Third Reich. Before you share that Hitler cartoon or Nazi photo online, recognize that using Jewish trauma for entertainment or education is painful and triggering for many of us.

🪬 2. Educate yourself about genocides past and present. Don’t conflate genocide with discrimination or other forms of prejudice. The crime of genocide is the act or intent to deliberately and systematically annihilate an entire people. We honor the memories of the 6 million Jews who were murdered, as well as the legacies of those who endured and survived, when we remember that "Never again" means "Never again for anyone."

🪬 3. Challenge Holocaust myths and misconceptions. Don’t repeat the myth that “ordinary Germans” were passive bystanders who looked the other way as their Jewish neighbors were targeted, persecuted, and eventually murdered. The Holocaust never would have happened without millions of German citizens and citizens of other nations *actively* collaborating with the Nazi regime.

🪬 4. Center Jewish people. During the Holocaust, two out of every three European Jews were murdered through brutal mistreatment, mass shootings and gassings, and specially designed killing centers. Centering Jewish people does NOT deny or diminish the suffering of millions of non-Jewish victims of Nazi persecution and murder; rather, it recognizes that only Jews were singled out for complete annihilation by the Third Reich. Discussing this history of state-sponsored mass murder without centering Jewish lives perpetuates antisemitism. Please reread that sentence before disputing my point.

🪬 5. Learn about Holocaust history. In 2020, an alarming 63% of millennial and Gen Z survey respondents were not aware that 6 million Jews were systematically murdered in the Holocaust. I recommend listening to survivors' testimonies at Yad Vashem. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum also has great resources.

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On this day of remembrance, I ask that you hold space for me and other people of Jewish descent, recognizing that the effects and impacts of generational trauma are complex and layered.
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Are you interested in bringing these important conversations to your team, organization, or classroom? Contact me and let’s work together to mitigate anti-Jewish bias and the alarming rise of contemporary antisemitism.

Image Description: Collage of photograph of Anne Frank surrounded by images of her handwritten diaries. Image Credit: Forward Montage https://forward.com/culture/416018/anne-frank-mansplained-by-male-writers-roth-auslander-and-more/