By Heidi Gantwerk in San Diego
A few weeks ago, I was speaking to a high school student in San Diego. They shared that a friend had recently texted asking whether 6 million Jews really died in the Holocaust, adding something along the lines of, “people have really different opinions on this.”
Swastikas drawn on benches, walls, and whiteboards are becoming commonplace on our campuses, along with the more-than-occasional Nazi salutes and chants of “Heil Hitler.” Tens of thousands of flyers distributed across San Diego just a few years ago spread vile Nazi imagery and propaganda throughout the county.
Meanwhile, in a recent eight-nation study by the Claims Conference, 76% of the Americans surveyed said they believe the Holocaust could happen again. According to the American Jewish Committee, more than half of Jews in America have recently changed their behavior or hidden their Jewish identity because they feel unsafe or uncomfortable.
Bearing witness has never been more important. The onslaught and normalization of Holocaust denial, distortion, and misinformation on social media, and increasingly in mainstream media, makes this urgent.
This Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center | JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS, members of our community will come together to commemorate Yom HaShoah. I urge you to join us for this moving and meaningful event. Many of San Diego’s remaining Holocaust survivors will be there, and I cannot overstate what an honor it is to be in the room with these precious souls. To be in their presence is a privilege we will only have for a short time longer.
Year after year, they attend this solemn commemoration to remember the loved ones they lost: parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, among the six million Jews murdered.
They come to make sure San Diego and the world never forget. And we owe it to them to be there to listen.
Last year, I was in Poland during Yom HaShoah for the March of the Living. Throughout that trip, second- and third-generation survivors shared stories of the luck, miracles, resilience, and strength that enabled their families to survive. I will never forget listening to one of those stories from Arturo Levin, one of the speakers at this Sunday’s commemoration. On one of our long bus rides, between visits to ghettos, cemeteries, and concentration camps, Arturo – staring straight ahead with the emotion of a lifetime etched on his face – shared the story of his mother, who was stuck in Lithuania when the Nazis invaded.
She and thousands of other Jews were saved from almost certain death by the courageous actions of the Japanese Consul General in Kaunas, Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara. Hearing Arturo tell this incredible story, one I had never heard before, brought his mother and her escape to life in a way only personal stories can.
You can hear from Arturo on Sunday, as well as Jason Abranches, who will share another remarkable and lesser-known story of courage about his great-grandfather, Portuguese Consul Mendes in France, who helped more than 30,000 people escape the Nazi invasion.
Community commemoration is deeply meaningful; so is education. Countering Holocaust denial, distortion, and rising antisemitism compels us to find new ways to bring the lessons and history of the Holocaust to light.
Thanks to the extraordinary vision and generosity of the Goldberg family and other donors, the Legacy of Light Goldberg Institute for Holocaust Education and our new state-of the art Spark Interactive Mobile Holocaust Classroom and Museum, will soon be bringing modern, engaging Holocaust education to thousands of San Diego students. We cannot wait to share more about this exciting and urgently needed effort in the weeks and months to come.
Commemoration, education, and understanding. We all have a role to play. We can all be a part of the story this Sunday, standing side by side with survivors and their families, hearing these stories, and carrying forward the incalculable loss of the six million, the courage and strength of the survivors, and the universal lessons of the Shoah. Please join us.
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Heidi Gantwerk is president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of San Diego