Our narrative has always been threatened by various fashionable changes, novelties and gadgets. Some have been captivated by audio-guides, others by interactive features and still others by multimedia. This is not what should attract the next generations of students to our Memorial Sites, the strength of which was, is, and always will be in their authenticity. Today – as I see it – one does not visit Auschwitz; one passes through it. It is not about observing it from the outside – it is about placing oneself at the core of the great question that is the legacy of Auschwitz. For everyone, it is a kind of rite of passage. We want to and we must do everything in our power to ensure that the young people who pass through our Memorial Sites emerge transformed and that we at least plant the seeds of future change deep inside them.
It is this function of the rite of passage that must remain at the very center of our attention. Both yesterday and today, young people must pass through our Sites and Museums and emerge transformed, able to ask themselves more conscious questions about their own choices in today’s world. Only then will it become possible for our message not to be reduced to a mere history lesson in school curricula. Only then will our message be present in the future, right where it should be - in education about society, politics, media, religion and ethics.
Moral anxiety
We have placed too much hope in simple emotions. We have seen young people cry, we have seen them stand in silence and reflection, we have seen them at a loss for words. Too many times we were easily convinced that it worked. We chose Anne Frank’s Diary as recommended reading for class after class of young teenagers, because we expected that through identification and empathy we would win education. Meanwhile, those groups of rebellious teens, who – as is typical for their age – saw the world in very contrasting colors, were being encouraged to identify with a person who was doomed to die, whom her own parents could not protect and who was threatened by evil – an evil which was not only external but, even worse - faceless.
Today, we must think deeply about what we want to achieve through our activities. This is not only about historical facts or only about empathetic emotions. If we want the rite of passage to work fully, if we want people to emerge from the Memorial Sites better prepared to act, we need to stir moral anxiety in their hearts. Anxiety about their deeds, words and the choices they make as human beings. This commitment must more fully become a consequence of visiting our Memorial Sites.
We cannot do it alone or in isolation, we need to act together in a planned and concerted way. The moral shape of the world does not depend on schools, the media or politicians. Still, it is what we all see as a priority and to what we have dedicated decades of our lives.