Holocaust: Importance of an Education

“For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory.” — Elie Wiesel, Night

When I arrived in England, as a teenager from Pakistan in the late 90s, I had never heard about the Holocaust. I knew about World War Two, just that it was a war and Germany had lost. There was no history about the Holocaust and WW2 taught in the schools. It was as if it did not occur.

In England, I was very excited to discover that there was a massive public library, that I could just join for free! All I had to show them was my address and I could take books out for free! That was incredible. I ended up taking out some romantic novels, and a book on ‘WW2 in Pictures’. A very heavy book indeed. When I got to my place, I was struck by the photographs of Concentration Camps. It was something I had never seen before in my life. The shock of seeing dead bodies and emaciated prisoners left a lasting mark on me. I could not believe that I had never heard about it before. So I went back to the library and got more books out on the Holocaust. I vividly remember asking the librarian about books on the matter and she recommended Anne Frank’s Diary amongst other books. The librarian was quite shocked that I had never heard of Anne Frank.

I read her diary and I read more and more on the Holocaust. I read about the ‘Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass’. The more I read, the more shocked I was that this was the first I was hearing about it. I started to question why I was not taught about it, I wondered, if there were more things that were not taught to me.

I am so grateful for the survivors who, despite going through literal hell, made sure to tell the world about what had happened. These days we use the words “trigger alert” so easily, I cannot imagine what the survivors went through and how they still carried on so they would make sure the truth was out. I am grateful to the people who documented the history. I am grateful to also learn about the people who took the right road of helping their friends and protecting them from the Holocaust. It is so easy to look away, so easy to not care, easy to give into hate. When people did what they could to help their friends, It shows to me that there is always a choice to do the right thing.

Recently, I also read another moving Holocaust survival story called ‘The Forger’ by Cioma Schönhaus. He was a German Jew, and at age 20, he went underground in Berlin, after his family were deported to concentration camps. His story is from a different perspective, someone who was not in the camps, but someone who managed to hide. Someone who became a stranger in his own country. I was struck by his loneliness, his optimism and his bravery. His story, struck me also because I too was a young person, away from home and my family and it made me see that what happened to him and his family, could happen to anyone if hate and totalitarian is allowed to get into power. I felt sad and angry for him that he lost his family, that his parents lost their lives, that he had to go into hiding and fear for his life, all because someone thought that “he was not the right religion”. It made me feel his sorrow that his parents never saw him grow up, that he never knew the exact date when they were murdered and that he did not have a grave to visit. I was again struck by how some people, despite the dangers to them, did the right thing, they helped people escape the murdererous Nazi regime.

This period in our human history is very dark indeed, but it is important to look at this darkness head on and to not shy away from it because if we do not look, see the real face of hate, how are we to know it’s dangers? We must learn from history and we must ensure we do not give in to hate.

After educating myself on the Holocaust,I also started to research about Jews in Pakistan. How come I had never come across a Jew there? Why weren’t there any Synagogues there? I came across an article via ‘Jewish Virtual Library’ that Jews had lived in relative stability during the British rule. I learnt that there were more than three thousand Jews in the newly created Muslim majority country, Pakistan. After independence, the anti-semitism rose and Jews were subject to Pogroms by Muslim mobs. After more Googling, I also learnt that by 2019, there are only 200 Jews in the country and they are on the verge of completely disappearing from the country altogether (an article from Anadolu Agency titled ‘Pakistan’s Jews struggle to maintain their community’), however, according to Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NDRA) there are 745 registered Jewish families in the country (but this is a disputed account because an Israeli Journalist Liel Leibovitz has claimed that Pakistan may have falsified that record), There is the story about the Pakistan’s “last Jew” called Fishel Benkhald who is on the receiving end of anti-Semitism and has faced immense social discrimination in Pakistan . I have also discovered that Again Shalome Synagogue’ in Karachi, which was built in 1893 was demolished in 1988 on the order of the then dictator of Pakistan, General Zia-ul-Haq, and now there is a shopping centre built in it’s place. The ugly face of anti-semitism is still around and it is still a struggle. This hate and this persecution is still ongoing and it is important to highlight it. We must not pretend that it doesn’t happen and that anti-Semitism is something that is happening here the West alone. It is a wide spread issue.

I also would like to say that it is not just the children these days who need to be aware of the Holocaust, it is also people like me, who did not grow up here, who never had the chance to learn about it. I wanted to let the survivors and historians know, that I have paid attention to the lessons they have tried to tell us, that I will always fight hate, extremism and totalitarianism. I want them to know that I care and that I will never forget.

I have tried to educate myself. The message for tolerance, the education about Holocaust, and the importance of lessons to learn from history are still valid and we must not forget and we must learn from the horrors and become better people now so we can make the world a better place.

Rest in Peace to all the poor victims of Holocaust and an eternal thank you to those who made sure that the world learnt about what happened so people like me could be educated.