30th Anniversary Guardians Commemorative Book - Book - Page 115
PROTECTING
“OTHERS”
It’s not enough to
simply associate the
Holocaust with how
barbaric humans can
be to other humans. People need to
grasp the power of anti-otherness
and how it can pervade a society in
insidious ways. The Nazis basically
killed everyone who wasn’t like
them—Jews, Romani, and gays and
lesbians … others.
We mistakenly assume such horrors
will only happen to ‘others.’ Yet, in
some way, each of us is an ‘other’
to someone else. The United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum brings
to the forefront that these events
really occurred—and they can happen
again at a level where everyone is
swept up. Its exhibits, programs,
and outreach attest to the impact of
anti-otherness: how sophisticated
people in civilized societies watched
as their neighbors were persecuted,
shot in front of them, or packed
onto trucks and dispatched to death
camps. These ingrained biases were
leveraged so quickly and strongly that
entire societies were intimidated into
allowing or participating in the brutal
deaths of their friends and neighbors.
The Museum reminds us that antiotherness is always present, and
that we all have an obligation to
understand its power and to be
diligent against its abuse. Otherness
itself is not good or evil, but its
power can be used for both. That’s
why we have to continually learn to
be brave and diligent in fighting any
unjustified anti-otherness.
Unless we act now, the young people
of today and later generations will
forget about the Holocaust and
these lessons. The farther away we
get from that experience, the more
resources it will take to inform and
educate people, to make sure they
understand and remember what
happened. That’s why we’re so
committed to funding the Museum’s
future. One of the most vital lessons
from the Holocaust is if something
needs to be done, then we need to do
it and not wait for others.”
SAFEGUARDING TRUTH FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS l 113
