Remembering For The Future

I

East Lansing
t is 55 years after the end of
World War II and the defeat of
Nazi Germany. It is 55 years
after the liberation of the
camps. Although news of the Nazi
destruction of the Jews was available
during the war — the Allies issued a
public declaration in December 1942
— the newsreels at liberation [were
what] first made the news real and
imprinted the horror on the American
mind.
The world today is different than 55
years ago. A once divided Germany is
reunited. The Soviet Union, triumphant
after the war, no longer exists. Europe
has lost its primacy in a post-colonial
world. Europe itself is increasingly unit-
ed, although deep questions of national
identity and autonomy remain. The
world is more closely linked — new
communications erase distance and
boundaries and bring the news in real
rime.
And yet, even in a new, more tight-
ly linked and rapidly changing world,

Kenneth Waltzer is director of the Cen-
ter for Integrative Studies in Arts and
Humanities and a professor in James
Madison College at Michigan State
University. He delivered a longer version
of these remarks at the State of Michi-
gan Holocaust Commemoration, held
May 2 at the State Capitol in Lansing.

and, more recently, hidden children,
by survivors, who were silenced by
the Holocaust past does not pass. The
have participated in a remarkable social
American incomprehension and by the
Old World ceases to exist, but the
movement of oral memory to inform us
burdens of making new lives in a new
Holocaust, instead of receding, looms
about the Holocaust.
land.
larger.
The Holocaust and Auschwitz
In more recent decades, however, the
National debates throughout
do
not
represent unreason or madness.
Holocaust
has
moved
from
the
margins
Europe focus on how the Holocaust
Auschwitz was not another planet.
to the mainstream of America_n con-
should enter into national history and
The Holocaust evolved out of
memory and into Europe's self- •
a broader racial project for
understanding. News about the
remaking Europe and
Holocaust appears regularly —
involved instrumental reason
Swiss banks and hidden
aimed at achieving national
accounts, German companies
empire and mass annihilation.
and slave labor, French localities
Leaders and population plan-
and apartments of the deported,
ners in a modern state
museums and stolen art. Memo-
planned racial empire; citizens
ry of the Holocaust casts dark
stood by silently during eth-
shadows on the rise of new lead-
nic cleansing.
ers and movements, like [Joerg]
Architects planned the
Haider in Austria, and a Euro-
camps; engineers built them;
pean Right that wishes to cleanse
medical doctors staffed them;
the continent of strangers. Holo-
scientists
performed experi-
caust discourse guides Western
ments.
Legal
experts oversaw
reactions to ethnic conflicts in
international transport; officers
the former Yugoslavia.
It is remarkable, actually — a
Harold and Lucy Zuker of Oak Park light a candle at the led deportees to their deaths.
The Nazis sought to reengineer
global phenomenon. The Holo-
state's Holocaust commemoration.
the world not merely by chang-
caust looms larger today in our
ing human social organization
preoccupations and consciousness
and conquering nature, but by killing
sciousness. We mark the civic calendar
than it did after the war. The Holocaust,
off humans whom they deemed ene-
to commemorate the Holocaust. The
for example, did not remain prominent
mies.
U.S.
Holocaust
Memorial
Museum
in the U.S. after liberation; it was side-
The Allied governments had infor-
stands since 1993 near the national mall
lined by the Cold War and was not
mation about the Nazi project by
in Washington, D.C. Scores of smaller
understood as a distinct racial war for a
1942, yet did little beyond issuing the
museums and memorials dot the metro-
generation. Efforts by Americans to
declaration to publicize it and
politan landscape, including our own
build museums or memorials in the
explored little how they might inter-
Holocaust Memorial Center in West
postwar era foundered for lack of sup-
vene to save lives.
Bloomfield. Books and films pour out
port. Little appeared in books and film
on the Holocaust and courses spring up
about the Holocaust. Little also was said
— after a brief moment of testimony — in colleges and high schools. Survivors
REMEMBERING on page 48

Pho to by Fran klin J. Elias

KENNETH WALTZER
Special to the Jewish News

LETTERS

Local Rabbi
Enhances Trip

My wife Judy and I had the most
extraordinary experience during the
week of Dec. 13-21, traveling to Cuba
with the Jewish Community Center
mission ("Behind The Sugar Cane
Curtain," March 3, page 45). Seeing
Havana and rural areas of Cuba, and
meeting a number of its people, was
an exciting and enjoyable experience.
But the real experience was being
with our rabbi, Leonardo Bitran [of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek B'nai
Israel], who traveled with us as a
member of the. group. We visited
three separate Jewish congregations
— Orthodox, Conservative and
Sephardic — as well as a Presbyter-

ian congregation, which provided
assistance to us. We met and talked
with a number of members of each.
Rabbi Bitran was invited to deliver a
sermon and to otherwise talk with
the leaders and congregants at these
institutions.
These Jewish congregations had not
seen a rabbi for many years. The Pres-
byterian congregation apparently has
never seen a rabbi. Rabbi Bitran's pres-
ence — low key, dignified, very good
humored — and his clear, intellectual-
ly stimulating sermons and talks deliv-
ered in both English and Spanish were
electrifying. Each time, he held the
congregations, including us, in the
palm of his hand. In short, he
"wowed" all of us. When he stood
before a group, his presence filled the
sanctuary or room. We, the members

of our mission group, were so proud
of our rabbi. He was also lots of fun as
well as educational to be with during
our travels and sightseeing.
Bernard J. Cantor
Troy

Author's Work
Is Well Noted

I am delighted that the Jewish News
featured mystery writer Rochelle
Major Krich, Adat Shalom Synagogue
Sisterhood's donor day speaker, several
times in the past month.
I applaud the Jewish News Arts &
Entertainment section for highlighting
Krich. In the article by Alice Burdick
Schweiger ("In Search Of Justice,"
April 21, page 98), readers become

acquainted with the themes of Krich's
work as well as the person behind the
words.
Thank you for including Krich's
review of the film Kadosh (April 28,
page 105). Since her personal back-
ground is similar to that of the main
characters, her assessment of the
film was most enlightening and
credible.
We are fortunate in metropolitan
Detroit that the Jewish News, a uni-
fying force within the Jewish com-
munity, has chosen to present a
diversity of views and perspectives
about issues, causes and concerns
within its pages.
Carol Weintraub Fogel
president,
Adat Shalom Sisterhood
Farmington Hills