Introduction to the Holocaust
The horrors of World War II are hard to forget, but even more so when we remember that more than six million Jews were murdered by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. That grave crime is called the Holocaust. The word has a Greek origin and literally means “sacrifice by fire.” The Nazis’ belief that Jews threatened the purity and superiority of the Aryan race led to this atrocity.
During my childhood, we hardly heard anything about the Holocaust as the war raged on. My parents and the refugees in the neighborhood did not discuss it either. My first exposure to this horror was through a film shown in 1945 at a private neighborhood club on Twenty-Ninth Street near Surf Avenue. On a hot summer day, I sneaked into the venue, knowing that a movie will be shown outdoors after dark. The Cresco Club mostly catered to seniors, giving them a place for playing cards and sharing experiences. Since a small fee was required and I had no money, I found a way to get around it. I remembered how I scaled the high chain-link fence and disappeared into the crowd. As a small quiet kid, nobody paid attention to me.
Compared to the previous movies I had watched like Frankenstein and the Wolf Man, this film was more real and macabre. Standing at the back, I recall vividly how the audience moaned.
My next encounter with the Holocaust was when I volunteered to assist Ms. Muriel Newton during my stay at Abraham Lincoln High School. Ms. Newton was our English teacher. I was appointed to be the club monitor during one free period several times a week. During those times, I unboxed, organized, and sold books and then repackaged them for the next day’s sale. It gave me the chance to examine the pocketbooks on display and purchase books of interest.
Apart from all the book written by George Gamow about cosmology, I also chanced upon Scourge of the Swastika by Lord Russell, an observer at the Nuremberg Trials. It was my second exposure to evil. The book was an account of the Holocaust based on testimony of the survivors. I cannot imagine how the children of the Holocaust must have gone through. It was difficult to read the book in one sitting. The reading experience upset me and gave me nightmares afterward. Sometimes, I fantasized rescuing the Jews and killing the Nazis.
Years later, Dorothy and I visited Theresenstadt and Auschwitz during our trip to Prague. She smelled or imagined she smelled the smoke. After fifty years from school, I acknowledge there is evil in the world for which no excuses are acceptable and use of force is necessary. When I was employed by the Department of Defense, I thought I was fortunate to be in a position to strengthen the forces of the United States that may be used to discourage or even defeat those evildoers.
The aftermath of the Holocaust affected society deeply, from Europe to the rest of the world. It is a grim reminder of the dark times and a lesson to us all never to let it happen again.
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