Holocaust remembrance in the digital age
By John Berger
Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day, or literally, “day of the Holocaust”) is a deeply meaningful day for the Jewish people. All across the world, Jews and non-Jews take time to reflect on the atrocities that occurred in Nazi Germany and vow to “never forget” all those lives lost. The state of Israel commemorates Yom HaShoah by sounding a siren and stopping everything (including traffic) for a national moment of silence as the whole country stands still to remember those perished in the Holocaust.
COVID-19 forced events across the globe to shift to virtual formats. For some days, this approach worked relatively well. But Yom HaShoa is no ordinary day. These last two years greatly changed how the Jewish community approached remembrance — and not always for the better.
As a former Jewish day school student, Yom Hashoah has always been an important day to me. Each year, my high school invited every student to an assembly in which Holocaust survivors recounted their stories, answered questions, and sent students on a journey of reflection. When the assembly concluded, many students, including some of my close friends, would be in tears, emotionally spent from hearing the stories of the survivors. The entire student body was grateful to the survivors for their bravery; and to our school, which facilitated such important dialogues.
In the time of COVID-19, the assemblies were significantly different. Many felt that this year’s virtual remembrance did not carry the same weight as it had previously, and thus did not affect the student body in the same way. Portraying the seriousness of the Holocaust is difficult on Zoom. It lacks a much-needed human element. Today’s students, no longer arm-in-arm with each other, are not able to properly grieve together and remember the Shoah’s many, many victims. Students were clear in talking to me: the virtual format did not serve Yom HaShoa well. That being said, some did remark on the increased accessibility offered by Zoom, which some see as a silver lining.
This year, many Jews found themselves participating in virtual Yom HaShoah events. The prevalence of the virtual format made it easy for people to participate in meaningful Yom HaShoah events that they might not have otherwise been able to access. March of the Living, an annual Holocaust education program that brings individuals around the world to Poland and Israel, has been forced to halt their annual trip for the last two years due to the pandemic. Traditionally, March of the Living limits capacity, putting a cap on how many people have the opportunity to participate in the symbolic march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, in a symbolic reclamation of the path Jews were made to walk during the infamous Nazi death marches.
I was lucky enough to attend the March of the Living before the pandemic, and I found it to be one of the most meaningful experiences of my young life. The first week, in Poland, made the atrocities of the Holocaust truly apparent by inviting Holocaust survivors to tell their stories while walking us through the very same concentration camps they had endured so many years ago. We spent the following week in Israel, celebrating Jewish survival and the existence of a Jewish homeland. When I marched through Jerusalem, hand-in-hand with Holocaust survivors and fellow Jews, it felt like a true celebration of life. It was extraordinarily meaningful to see how far we have come as a Jewish people. It was incredible to celebrate our continued existence in the face of the world’s hatred.
Thankfully, March of the Living made the most of the situation despite the difficulty of the pandemic. This year, March of the Living held a virtual two-day conference on Yom HaShoah, allowing for more people to participate. Within the conference, there were many opportunities to learn from esteemed Holocaust educators, making the virtual experience almost as meaningful as before; while those remembering were not able to walk through the camps, they were still able to learn, connect, and listen.
Now more than ever, it is vital that we “never forget.” We are the last living generation that will be able to hear first-hand witnesses to the Holocaust tell their stories. Thankfully, there are online resources that will help us collectively remember, but now more than ever, we need to listen and learn.
It is crucial that we remember the atrocities that occurred in the Shoah. We must remember the 6+ million Jews and the 5+ million non-Jewish people destroyed by the Nazi forces. We, as Jews, have a responsibility to carry this remembrance beyond our own religion, and make sure such atrocities don’t happen to any other group of people. As our global society progresses, we need to be reminded of what we have been through as a people, and what evil is capable of when no one puts a stop to it.
