What should Holocaust education be about? This has become a matter of some debate in the United States and worldwide. Recently, the issue reared its complex head in connection with an organization on whose Board I serve. The current Mission Statement of the organization which sponsors a writing competition on the Holocaust for middle and high schoolers reads as follows: “It is our mission to sponsor essay writing competitions focused on fostering a perpetual remembrance of The Holocaust. Our audience is middle school and high school students.”

My proposal was to amend that statement and instead change the Mission Statement to say as follows: “It is our mission to sponsor an essay writing competition focused on fostering a perpetual remembrance of The Holocaust concerning the Jewish Community during World War II. Part of that mission necessarily involves addressing the roots of antisemitism and its current manifestations. The overall concept is designed to eradicate antisemitism in all its forms and to serve as an object lesson for other groups as well.”

It is my view that Holocaust education should be focused on fostering the perpetual remembrance of The Holocaust concerning the Jewish Community during World War II. Holocaust education should also include addressing the roots of antisemitism and its current manifestations. The overall goal should be designed to eradicate antisemitism in all its forms and to serve as an object lesson for other groups as well.

Many of the essays received focused on problems suffered by other groups that compared their suffering to the Jewish Holocaust. For example, in writing about the Holocaust, students would address the problems faced by gay persons, immigrants in the United States, and other issues and causes.

The Holocaust should not be treated as an isolated incident lasting from 1940-1945.

There are those who argue that Holocaust education is not about antisemitism but should be directed about the hatred fomented against individuals and groups. Some have shouted, “it’s not about the Jews.” Others compare the Holocaust to the activities of ICE and what is sometimes characterized as the “war” against “brown people.” The Holocaust has been utilized in debate with respect to immigrants seeking a better life in the United States. It is not unusual for the lessons of the Holocaust to be conflated with hostility to the current administration in Washington.

A Holocaust education writing contest that focuses on the treatment by Nazi Germany of the Jews over a course of only 5 years has the effect of de-Judaizing the Holocaust and making it about something other than the planned industrialized murder of the Jewish people.

The Holocaust cannot be isolated to 5 years because it was in fact an attempt at the “final solution.” Earlier “solutions” were the Roman murder of over 1 million Jews 2,000 years ago, and the Inquisitions which resulted in the murder or expulsion of every Jew from Britian and Western Europe. The surviving Jews were either forced to convert to Christianity or fled to far away lands in North African, the Middle East, and even Asia.

Taking the Jews out of the Holocaust plays into modern antisemitism of both left and right.

Some fiercely oppose any attempt to assure that Holocaust studies focus mainly on the Jews. The focus arguably should be on the same emotions and views which created the gas chambers built by the Germans and the Polish. In effect, the Holocaust is a continuum which has transcended all reason and logic and has been ongoing for 2,000 years. All one has to do is listen to people like Tucker Carlson and the Iranian leadership to realize that a modern Holocaust could just be around the corner.

A suggestion to make the essay contest more relevant, while maintaining the original purpose, is to look at how Holocaust education works in schools and universities. Penn State University has a state and national Holocaust program which is highly regarded, as do many other colleges.

The core issue is whether the murder of the Jews, orchestrated by the Nazis joined with many other antisemites of the period, is a lesson of “hate” or is it also a lesson of the two millennia long enmity against the Jewish people? The appropriate and proper answer is “both.” One could teach about the Holocaust, its origins, and modern manifestations and still teach a lesson about the dangers of hate as it may impact other people as well. In other words, while the Holocaust was and remains uniquely a Jewish experience, that does not exclude the lessons it has to teach about hate generally.

There are those who are not willing to acknowledge the fact that the Holocaust has been a 2,000-year effort. There are those who are so angry at the current administration in Washington that they have lost all vision concerning what The Holocaust was really all about. One can thoroughly hate the President of the United States and his policies and still appreciate that it is not a 2,000-year organized effort to exterminate one particular people from the globe because of their beliefs, their success, and their very existence. There is a big-time difference.

It should be of no shock that current politics will often usurp the significance of important historical events. Those with limited perspectives frequently equate human suffering with the conduct of their own least favorite current politician.

The history of attempts to exterminate the Jews is unique in all of history. It must never be equated with the awful consequences of hate which exist generally in the world.

Right now in North and Central Africa, Black Christians and Animists are being systematically exterminated by various gangs and tribes, mostly affiliated with Muslim Jihadists. There is very little news about this in the world. It is, without question, a form of Holocaust. Islamic extremists are attempting to create a Jihadist-centered state in North and Central Africa.

In spite of the horrors of Central Africa, there seems to be a strong sentiment among certain political views in the United States to compare the Holocaust against European Jewry with domestic political intranquillity. That is not only a mistake, but it is historically dishonest.

The antisemitic Holocaust leveled against the Jews is a particularly Jewish experience which has occurred over the centuries, reached its fruition in the 5-year period beginning in the late 30’s to 1940, and which has ongoing significance and risks today. Were it not for Israel and the United States, Iran would have utilized the nuclear option, which it promised to use against Jews and Christians in the Middle East, Europe and eventually the United States.

While all opinions should be respected, including the value of using the Holocaust as an object lesson against all hate, to take the Jews out of the Holocaust is to dishonor the deaths, the murder and genocide which was practiced against the remaining Jewish community in Europe during World War II. Students who write essays must also realize that many, if not most of those deaths, could have been prevented by Western governments, the allies, who turned their back on the suffering and extermination of the European Jewish community.

Clifford A. Rieders is a board-certified trial advocate in Williamsport.