30th Anniversary Guardians Commemorative Book - Book - Page 209
COMBATING
IGNORANCE
If you’re Jewish, how
do you not care
about the Holocaust?
As George Santayana
said, ‘Those who cannot remember
the past are condemned to repeat it.’
The Holocaust can never be forgotten
or it will happen again. It’s a matter
of combating ignorance, which is
always the greatest danger to society.
Counteracting ignorance creates
people who know—and who care.
We believe that education is the
key to everything. Adolf Hitler
certainly knew that. If he didn’t have
the Hitler Youth, how active would
antisemitism be today? If Nazism had
died with the adults who didn’t pass
it on to their children, if he didn’t
‘educate’ their children, how much
would we have today? He knew that
when you want to create an ongoing
idea, educate the children. And that’s
exactly the way to counter it.
The United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum is doing incredibly
important work in keeping the
knowledge and information alive.
The Museum helps people see what
can happen and the road their
community can travel if they behave
a certain way or allow certain things
to happen. When you run across
someone who is one of the deniers,
there’s no point wasting your breath.
You’re not going to change that
person’s mind. But the people the
deniers and bigots are talking to?
Those are the people who need to
be reached and informed.
The Museum’s work, bringing people
in and reaching out to the world,
needs to continue forever. It’s a matter
of educating those who are ignorant
and helping knowledgeable people
who want to learn more. When they
want to know, ‘How do I spread the
word? How do I teach other people?
How do I show other people what’s
happening?’ they can turn to the
Museum. We made this gift in honor
of John’s 70th birthday so that the
Museum can continue educating and
informing, creating more people who
understand and who care.”
SAFEGUARDING TRUTH FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS l 207
