(the philosophy of?) Collective Memory

One and half years ago I went on a school journey to Poland, a journey most of the Israeli high school students go to with their schools, to visit the concentration camps and study about the Holocaust. After visiting Auschwitz, where you can see horrible sights, we all got letters from our parents, which were collected by the school before we left. My parents’ letter was the most aspiring thing in my whole journey. After coming back, I was asked to write a speech for an evening about the journey for parents and students.

It would be too long to translate, so I’ll tell you about it shortly (well, I’ve tried to make it short it didn’t really work)…

I was describing our experience in the different concentration and extermination camps. I was describing the constant will to try and understand how huge the horrors were, the need to try understanding and even feeling the pain that those six million people experienced. I talked about how impossible it actually is. How big the number six million is. We all agreed that it is intangible, but still we go there and visit those places, so there must be a bigger cause.

Thus I concluded that even though the numbers, the deeds, the horrors – were intangible we all stopped and thought. We all have learned something. Something about the ability of modern methods to impose authority over the people and make them do cruel deeds. Something about the indifference of the environment, this can turn a blind eye even when horrors happen right in front of it. Something about seeing and understanding ‘the other’, on discrimination and racism. Something about hatred, about suffering, life and death. Something about the will to live. About rebellion, survival and coping even impossible conditions.

However, this is not a good enough reason for travelling all the way to Poland. There are lessons that have to be acknowledged. The Holocaust was a singular, one of a kind, and it is impossible to compare it with any other event. However, there were many horrible massacres and other occasions before and after the holocaust that have to be remembered. Furthermore, it is important to think about the present and the future, as the studying of history is important in order not to repeat it, as we all know. So what is the point if we don’t make the right conclusions?

Then came the ‘problematic’ part:
Right now Israel does not recognize the Armenian Holocaust, because we need good relations with Turkey.

Right now there is a disgraceful and shameful treatment for the survivors if the Holocaust who live here in Israel.
And right now we live in occupying country, behind an occupying and oppressive army, a country where million Arabs live under oppression and lack basic human rights. A country in which there are specific territories where innocent people are killed every day.

Now, after we’ve been there, and saw with our own eyes what the world has seen then - and said nothing, now we cannot
stay quiet, we should not ignore.
Perhaps this journey would lead us to think beyond our own selves. Think social, national, global… Then came and optimistic call (that sounded appropriate to me at that time for the students to change the world and that everything is possible).

However, when I showed the speech to the teacher, she erased the part about the occupation – “you cannot mention the occupation on a stage of a Jewish school” she said. When I argued, I was invited to talk to the headmaster of the school. After lecturing to me for hours about the Israeli-Arab conflict he smashed my speech and threw it away telling me he’s expecting me to write a new one.

Eventually I read almost the original version, only marking out that I’m not presenting any comparison (although my I wasn’t presenting any comparison to begin with). The reaction I got were very warming and encouraging, both from students and parents. Later on it also got into the newspaper, stating that “a student compared the IDF to the Nazis and was censured”. I even received a letter from an Holocaust survivor rebuking me about the comparison (that I haven’t even made!).

First of all, it is very interesting to see how easily people interoperate other people’s words so different than they essentially are, even when the things are stated very clearly. After experiencing it (and suffering from it quite a bit…) I understand how easily things can go wrong because of misunderstanding. I wonder how different the world would have been if people would just LISTEN more carefully.

Another issue that I came to understand is how sensitive the memorial of the holocaust is in the Jewish (Israeli?) world. This ‘collective memory’ has become a ‘taboo’ which is not to be talked about in any other connotation other than its own memorial. Every time the issue is raised everyone immediately become so defensive and even aggressive, and I’ve experienced it personally. I perceive it as an extremely negative thing. Of course I believe that the memory of the Holocaust is important, but its importance is exactly in those ‘comparisons’ (again, not really comparing, but putting into context with other events) with other events in our history and present life. Keeping the Holocaust as something that people are scared of mentioning will only reduce the importance of the memory, instead of expanding it to a discussion about humanism, human rights, and so much more.

More than that, I believe that education and in particular the teaching of history such as the Holocaust, can cause or solve many problems and hatred depending on the way it is taught, but this is an issue for another post (well, it’s actually quite similar to my EE topic…).