World

US Holocaust Museum: Preventing & Attracting Hate

by Jordan Yerman | June 10, 2009 at 11:06 am

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The US Holocaust Memorial Museum was completed in 1993, and serves to educate visitors about not only the Holocaust that took place during World War II, but ongoing acts of genocide in the modern world, such as in Darfur southern Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chechnya, Rwanda, and Burundi, places where innocent people are slaughtered en masse, and which many cannot even find on a map. The point is that it's not just about Jews, Nazis, and the 1940's, but about how those in power treat those without, and how indifference can encourage cruelty.

The idea is to show people where the road of hate leads, but there's already quite a bit of hate in the world as it is, which today's shooting highlights. Racism, anti-semitism, and anti-semitism's little cousin, holocaust denial, are drawn to places such as the USHMM.

Indeed, James von Brunn, the suspect in today's shooting, was a known member of hate groups, which take the very presence of institutions such as the Holocaust Museum as a threat to their ideologies. Attacks on Holocaust memorials is nothing new: a memorial at Drancy was vandalized two months ago, a memorial for gay vicitms of the Naxis was vandalized last year, and a Kristallnacht memorial was vandalized in eastern Germany two years ago.

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Yellow Guitar

at 11:53 on June 10th, 2009

Thanks for this piece. These acts of hate are against individual human beings, and they are acts of hate against all of us. Not just Jews, Tutsis, Darfurians, ... thanks again for posting.

Pythiian1

at 18:48 on June 10th, 2009

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, these hate groups typically, start out as Holocaust deniers, which appears to be their shared belief hence the premise for their hatred.

Paschen

at 19:04 on June 10th, 2009

I never understood Holocaust denial, I do however understand the anger of some such as the Roma that suffered the same atrocities in the Holocaust and are not remembered in the same fashion and the Jewish victims are.

The other trouble is especially in the Middle East and Africa where the Anger is towards Israel its Politics and Justifying this politic in part with the Holocaust. Wish has caused a perverse form of Holocaust denier out of spite rather then ignorance.

Some where along the line we may have failed in our intend to educate and prevent this sort of hate from ever happening again.

This is a great post Jordan, thank you.

I wish I knew the anther to solve the problem and stop hate of any form.

This is not a US problem alone, but an International one and a Human one.