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Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig explains a Holocaust Memorial Center display to Lisa
Gretchko of the American Jewish Committee and Roswitcha and Michael Vorwerk.
He consul general of Germany.
German, Japanese and
Italian diplomats
confront their nations'
histories during a visit to
the HMC.
ROBERT A. SKLAR
Editor
I
n the starkness of the Holocaust
Memorial Center in West
Bloomfield, a small group of for-
eign diplomats living in metro
Detroit soaked in Adolf Hitler's ranti-
ngs, deceptions, propaganda and final
solution. And they came away deeply
impressed with how, despite it all, the
Jewish people survived.
"I've read a lot about the Holocaust
and I learned about it in school. But to
see it as I did at the Holocaust Memor-
ial Center is to experience something
almost real. I was shocked," said West
Bloomfield resident Klaus Mueller, vice
consul with the Consulate of Germany
in Detroit.
"WeJapanese have some knowledge
about the Holocaust but we didn't
know all the details. I was so shocked
to see the videos of the survivors and
films of the near-genocide. That kind
of terror never should have occurred —
and should never occur," said Bloom-
field Hills resident Naoto Amaki, con-
sul general with the Consulate of
Japan.
"Centers such as this are important
in order to keep the memory alive for
future generations," said Bloomfield
Hills resident Michele Quaroni, consul
with the Consulate of Italy.
On March 2, the American Jewish
Committee/Michigan Region hosted
seven diplomats from Japan, Germany
and Italy for a Holocaust Memorial
Center tour led by Rabbi Charles
Rosenzveig. He's the founder and exec-
utive vice president of the 14-year-old
center.
Rosenzveig, a member of Shaarit
Haplaytah (Survivors of the Holocaust),
took pains to point up how the Nazis
tried to deceive not only their Jewish
quarry but also the German populace.
"Deception was part of the game — a
big part," the rabbi said.
The AJCommittee hosts the tour
every few years as local diplomats
change. Diplomats are exposed to a
variety of experiences in the Jewish
community but the tour is unquestion-
ably the most haunting. On it, they are
exposed to the political, social and cul-
tural winds that blew to give rise to
Hitler.
AJCommittee Michigan area direc-
tor Sharona Shapiro found the tour a
great tool for sparking interaction
among people from different cultures.
"The Japanese diplomats, fore xample,
were asking me about my impressions
of Germans, and about what the Ger-
mans were thinking at the time of
Hitler," she said. "The German diplo-
mats, meanwhile, were learning how
the Jewish community educates the
next generation about significant hor-
rific acts such as the Holocaust."
The Holocaust Memorial Center,
opened in 1984, stands as a living
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