Monday, May 02, 2005
Holocaust Museum
Some disturbing news reached me yesterday. The Illinois Holocaust Memorial Museum is undergoing a project to expand into a multimillion dollar campus. No news there. But the museum, as part of the rededication, will change it's name to the Illinois Institute of Genocide Awareness. Out with Auschwitz, in with Sudan.
Sure the holocaust will be there, alongside such tragedies as the genocide in Rwanda and other tribal warfare around the world. But gone will be the need to remember the holocaust as the single most important, albeit tragic, lesson in human existence. All murder is evil, but if mankind is ready to just write-off the scientific destruction of neigbors by an enlightened society as just another human condition, then the lesson of the holocaust has been forgotten while survivors still walk.
The lesson of Rwanda is clear - people are suffering, and we must hear their cries. This too was a lesson of the holocaust. But in that distant strife there lies none of the urgency of recalling a people who led lives like our own, build relationships like our own, but one day found themselves starving on the wrong side of a barbed wire fence. The lesson of the holocaust isn't about helping your fellow man. It's about the real hatred that we must be aware of, and fight, even in our own societies. Struggles in Africa, with agricultural starvation and generations of of tribal rivalries at their root, have none of the imperative lessons that make the holocaust a must for every child's education.
The holocaust is an example of a genocide, but we should never forget that no genocide can be compared to its horrors.
While I found no mention of these plans at the official website, I consider my source a reliable insider. It does appear that some of the Museum Campaign Leadership has more interest in human rights than a traditional holocaust focus. And a job posting related to the new project states, "the new Museum will be a state-of-the-art human rights center dedicated to preserving the history of the Holocaust and alerting future generations to the dangers of unchecked bigotry." Will the holocaust be central or tangential?
Feel free to contact the Museum with inquiries.
Sure the holocaust will be there, alongside such tragedies as the genocide in Rwanda and other tribal warfare around the world. But gone will be the need to remember the holocaust as the single most important, albeit tragic, lesson in human existence. All murder is evil, but if mankind is ready to just write-off the scientific destruction of neigbors by an enlightened society as just another human condition, then the lesson of the holocaust has been forgotten while survivors still walk.
The lesson of Rwanda is clear - people are suffering, and we must hear their cries. This too was a lesson of the holocaust. But in that distant strife there lies none of the urgency of recalling a people who led lives like our own, build relationships like our own, but one day found themselves starving on the wrong side of a barbed wire fence. The lesson of the holocaust isn't about helping your fellow man. It's about the real hatred that we must be aware of, and fight, even in our own societies. Struggles in Africa, with agricultural starvation and generations of of tribal rivalries at their root, have none of the imperative lessons that make the holocaust a must for every child's education.
The holocaust is an example of a genocide, but we should never forget that no genocide can be compared to its horrors.
While I found no mention of these plans at the official website, I consider my source a reliable insider. It does appear that some of the Museum Campaign Leadership has more interest in human rights than a traditional holocaust focus. And a job posting related to the new project states, "the new Museum will be a state-of-the-art human rights center dedicated to preserving the history of the Holocaust and alerting future generations to the dangers of unchecked bigotry." Will the holocaust be central or tangential?
Feel free to contact the Museum with inquiries.
# posted by Josh : Monday, May 02, 2005
