Chapter 7: conclusion
As Dr. Baird has found in her research, when time pushes the tragedies of war farther away, fewer people are alive who were directly affected and the importance of the story loses its impact. The New York Times quotes Greg Schneider of the Claims Conference, “The issue is not that people deny the Holocaust; the issue is just that it’s receding from memory” (Astor, 2018). He adds that the number of Holocaust survivors is less than 400,000, and most of them are like Ivo, in their 80s and 90s. Remembrance advocates agree that the best method to instill memory of the atrocities is through hearing directly from those who lived through it, but as they grow older their voices are disappearing.
Survivors and rescuers who have found the power of their voices use them as tools to imprint these memories. Many go on local or even national speaking engagement tours, using the last years of their life to speak to young people. Knud Dyby spent much of his last decades telling children how his country came together to save Jews in a boat rescue to Sweden, but he also used it as a lesson in morality and how children can become better members of society:
“I have a message given at the end of all my speeches, especially to the children, of “the Three C’s:” compassion, care, and consideration, and to use the Three C’s every day, not only in a war situation, but in every situation. And I have many, many people now who come up and say, “We remember the Three C’s.””
Each of us has a responsibility to carry on the stories that give us strength, that tell of characters who seem too mythical to be real, but they are. A powerful message that I heard from the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh roundtable was (Bairnsfather et al., 2021):
“When you study and learn about the Holocaust, you are now a witness and it is your job to tell the story.”
Our society is overwhelmed with stories of hate and division, leaving us feeling so out of control. The rescuers of World War II also felt overwhelmed and out of control. But they unknowingly came together by the thousands across political and religious boundaries, guided by their own common moral compass for a single mission to help another person, not knowing if they would live one day to the next. The story of the pious Gino Bartali, the diplomat spy, Jan Karski, the united Danes like Knud Dyby, the moral atheist, Tina Strobos, the compassionate and brave Pole, Irene Opdyke, or any of the untold thousands of rescuers like them, should give us all strength and hope. They should inspire a belief that if one is pressed into a decision weighted in conflict, they would seek their moral reserves to make the humanitarian choice. Our world needs to see heroes. We need to carry on the voices that will inevitably fade to silence so that every generation understands they are not a myth, but they are real and inside all of us. None of us can say we’ve failed, as long as we begin.