Survivors Warn Against Hate and Intolerance

The testimony of genocide survivors rarely confines itself to experience of the individual. Rather, those survivors who chose to share their stories often convey larger messages about injustice and intolerance, in an effort to warn others of the destructive power of hatred.

Survivors of the Holocaust frequently speak to middle and high school students across the U.S., urging students not just to learn an important lesson from history, but to internalize it: As survivor Inge Auerbacher said after speaking to middle school students in Wisconsin, "Sensitize a child and teach that this could happen to you very easily, and that's to bring you down to their innermost hearts their thoughts that this didn't only happen to other people."

At-risk youth in California found common ground with Holocaust survivors when the two groups were brought together to share experiences and lessons-learned about violence, hate, and forgiveness.  And Holocaust survivor Herbert Kohn connected his experience with that of other genocides, including Darfur, and told students in Georgia that these crimes can be prevented. He stressed that individuals can chose to be guided by their own moral center rather than swept up in the destructive fervor that surrounds them.

And in doing so, they save lives.

Photo credit: public.resource.org