I think of myself now as a survivor of the Holocaust. This was not always the case. As a child, then a teenager, and finally as a young woman, I thought of myself as an immigrant. It was only with the definition of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum that I became “a survivor.” As a survivor, I wonder now, what do I owe to myself, my family, and the greater community? I have been thinking about that a lot lately.
As a child, my best friends came from families of immigrants, so my experience didn’t seem unusual. Most of my aunts and uncles were immigrants, and that also seemed pretty normal to me. I knew these people were here, in the United States, for a better life with more opportunities for themselves and their children. I never considered what was left behind. Now, as an older person, I have had the time to think about the effects on my life and my family’s lives of leaving our homeland. I wish my siblings and I had talked about it more and shared some perspectives on it. Now, I try to talk to my children about what I and they missed by not knowing our extended family, traditions, religious practices, medical records, and favorite foods.
The bigger questions I have, though, are as a survivor, what do I owe to the world? While I’m specifically talking about Holocaust survivors, I think many of the same things are true of all survivors. First of all, we need to talk about our personal stories. What happened, how we survived, who, if anyone, helped us, and how we went on with our lives. But I think more importantly, we need to talk about what led to the events causing us to become survivors. The history, the religious discrimination, the society, the economy, the government, and the politics are all important for us to share with others. While I want people to understand how all these conditions have affected me, it is equally important for people to understand how world conditions are impacted by these same things.
If we teach about the world, we also need to talk about individual responsibility to be aware of what is happening in our communities, countries, and world. How do each of us work to make the world a better place for all?
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