There are no halfway measures against bigotry, hatred and anti-Semitism. It's got to be rejected totally.
Abraham FoxmanRead
Sixty years after the end of the war, the time has come to make this information available. With the number of survivors and witnesses diminishing by the day, and the reality that the Holocaust is fading into the pages of history and memory, we should not have to wait any longer.
Interpretation
We must preserve the memory of the Holocaust before those who experienced it are lost.
Abraham Foxman emphasizes the urgent need to document and share the experiences and memories of Holocaust survivors, as their numbers are dwindling and the risk of historical amnesia increases. He advocates for immediate action to ensure that future generations understand the gravity of this event, highlighting the importance of remembrance as a crucial part of preventing similar atrocities in the future.
In practice
In a speech about Holocaust education, I would quote Foxman to stress the importance of remembering these events.
There are no halfway measures against bigotry, hatred and anti-Semitism. It's got to be rejected totally.
As much progress as we think we've made with legislation, litigation and education, anti-Semitism still continues to be the No. 2 hate crime in the United States. You can't eliminate it, but you can try to keep a lid on it.
...They cannot escape their history any more than you yourself can lose your shadow.
Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot... But what of the man? I know his name was Guy Fawkes and I know, in 1605, he attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament.
Stern accuracy in inquiring, bold imagination in describing, these are the cogs on which history soars or flutters and wobbles.
As a kid, I was growing up in an era of celebration of the Civil War centennial, with a lot of 'Lost Cause' emphasis on the Confederacy. I used to play Civil War soldiers with my brothers as a child, and my older brother always insisted that he got to be Lee, and I got be Grant. I never knew that Grant won until quite some time had passed.
It takes a willful disregard of history to appreciate how white Southerners could look at the Confederate battle flag and see states' rights or a way of life or a tradition - and not one human being whipping another, which was a common occurrence.
The silencing of the Haitian Revolution is only a chapter within a narrative of global domination. It is part of the history of the West and it is likely to persist, even in attenuated form, as long as the history of the West is not retold in ways that bring forward the perspective of the world.
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