Editor's Letter
The Power Of Docents
T
hey do more than help us never forget. The docents
and survivors who volunteer at the Holocaust
Memorial Center in Farmington Hills also help bring
a bleak stage of history to life for a new generation. And they
do that while teaching tolerance, understanding and compas-
sion.
They do remarkable work. And it's high time we as a corn-
munity acknowledge that. The HIvIC's 90-member docent
corps includes survivors as well as others bent on making
sure that Jews and non-Jews keep the familiar refrain "Never
Again!" at the forefront of any study of
World War II, including the impact of
the world turning a blind eye toward
Nazi Germany.
As America nears the fifth anniver-
sary of 9-11, it's an appropriate time to
pay homage to the good folks who lead
tours at the HMC without fanfare or
pay. Like the Holocaust, 9-11 brought
non-believers into the inner sanc-
tum of madmen. Al Qaida exposed
America's fragility just as the Third
Reich exposed Europe's weaknesses.
Each visit to the HMC includes a 90-minute tour, typically
followed by an engrossing talk by a survivor. You arrive eager
to learn. You leave with your soul bared.
I always leave the HMC haunted by how one man, Adolf
Hitler, could persuade so many people that they
are superior to others, especially the Jews. Today,
Al Qaida's Osama bin Laden boasts a similar
mindset and includes the entire West in his
maniacal sight lines.
Making Of A Docent
Docent training begins every June to accom-
modate schoolteachers. Every docent is a mentor.
Docents not only must learn the key dates and
events of what triggered the Holocaust, but also
the political and social reasons that gave charis-
matic stature to a once-nobody like Hitler.
Docents need a sense of Jewish history and
impact, too. They don't just get a primer to study and later
answer a few questions. Training can take up to a year before
they earn a tour guide badge — a badge of courage as much
as anything.
Some docents stay 20 years or more, but the average length
of service is a dozen years. Docents range in age from 20-
somethings to octogenarians, although the majority are age
50-plus. You need a tough skin and a sturdy demeanor to
constantly recount the murder of 6 million Jews and smaller
numbers of gypsies, homosexuals and people derogatively
called "cripples." Retelling the story of "Aryan supremacy"
surely must exact a mental toll.
Regardless, docents prefer to say they are fulfilling a need
to drill deep into the Nazi psyche so that the civilized world,
particularly our youth, can recognize the seeds of deceit and
manipulation. Docents prefer to say what they are doing is as
self-fulfilling as anything they have ever done. I admire their
tenacity in trying to explain, based on fact and example, how
devastating power is in the wrong hands.
Survivors who serve as docents or speak about their
remembrances must laser focus on their experiences and
make sure they don't confuse someone else's memories of
Hitler's hell with theirs.
Survivor Zygie Allweiss, 79, of West Bloomfield put it this
way: "Survivors must tell their story accurately. If not, it would
desecrate your family that died."
He and older brother Sol were the only ones among nine •
children in a Polish Jewish family to survive.
Zygie didn't begin speaking about his past until 2004 when
Sol died. Zygie found the opportunity a rewarding way to
memorialize his brother.
Youthful Audiences
More non-Jews than Jews visit the HMC. Most of the visi-
tors are middle and high school students; more than 100,000
come each year. Most come from Michigan, but others travel
from Indiana and Ontario. The visit is that important.
When it comes to evil in the world, Zygie tells kids, "To
be neutral is not a good thing." That's why, even in strained
times, he says, "It is important for Christians, Jews and
Muslims to sit down together and talk about their differ-
ences."
He says this so that kids don't grow up hating others just
because they follow a different faith. In contrast, Palestinian,
Iranian and other Muslim schools in the Middle East teach
kids to hate Jews because they are "infidels" and that to die as
a martyr in the act of killing Jews "pleases" Allah.
Zygie says many kids are moved to tears when he tells
them, "I can't remember my mother's face." He adds, "I tell
"I can't remember my
mother's face."
- Holocaust survivor Zygie Allweiss
them to always keep a picture of your moth-
er with you."
He's moved most when he connects with
non-Jewish kids, who arrive at the HMC
with childhood innocence, but who leave
forever changed.
One such child is Kelsey Warner of New
Covenant Christian School in Lansing. After
hearing his talk in May, the 11th-grader approached Zygie
sobbing and supported by two friends. She was so inspired
that she later wrote him a poem called "The Day That
Changed My Life."
In her cover letter, she wrote: "The stories you told about
your life touched the deepest parts of our hearts."
She added, "My heart became burdened, as if I could feel
exactly what you felt during those times of loneliness, despair
and heartache."
As we reflect on the catastrophe of 9-11, it's a fitting time
as well to re-embrace the lessons of the Holocaust. The two
tragedies are stark reminders why Israel and the West must
win the war of terror.
Let us remember the 11 million victims of the Holocaust
and the 3,000 people who perished in the Al•Qaida carnage of
9-11 — and all other victims of terror.
And let us reinforce why freedom and liberty must never
stop echoing. They alone prevent the radical Islamists seek-
ing to control and indoctrinate the world from catapulting to
victory.
❑
Kelsey Warner's poem appears on JNonline.us with this column.
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September 7 • 2006
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