Speaking Up

You could see the gates in the background as President Obama spoke at Buchenwald last week.

The gates read Jedem das Seine. Literally, it means, "To each his own"; figuratively, it means, "Everybody gets what he deserves." At Dachau, near München, the gates read Arbeit Machts Frei, or "Work makes one free." Messages steeped in irony.

It was with a mixture of pride and sadness that I watched the President make that speech, in a place where unspeakable horrors took place. It was significant that he stood there, making it clear that his administration does support Israel, does support the plight of the Jews. And he reiterated that he could not tolerate the views of those who would deny the Holocaust:

"We are here today because we know this work is not yet finished. To this day, there are those who insist that the Holocaust never happened—a denial of fact and truth that is baseless and ignorant and hateful. This place is the ultimate rebuke to such thoughts; a reminder of our duty to confront those who would tell lies about our history."

My pride was mingled with sadness, as it often is, when I am reminded of the atrocities that took place some 70 years ago. And the sadness returned yesterday, when an 84-year-old white supremacist opened fire at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, killing Stephen Johns, an African-American security guard, the man who opened the door to allow the gunman in.

Here we are, 64 years after the end of World War II, more than 40 years after the Civil Rights movement. And still, we have people filled with such hate. People who hate indiscriminately, with a bias against those of another race, religion, or sexual orientation - to name a few.

Where does it end?

Did we not learn from the Nazis, and their needless hate and fear of another religion? Why the hatred against those of another race? Why the need to judge people based on what they look like, or what religion they practice, or whom they love? Why not judge people on, to quote the great Dr. Martin Luther King, the content of their character?

Jedem das Seine. Everyone gets what he deserves. Do we not all deserve the same thing? The "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" as outlined in the Declaration of Independence?

The shooter in the Holocaust Museum was in his 80s. With luck, the hatred, the divisiveness belongs to a different generation. I can only hope that with my own children, such prejudices will fade away, and that truly we will see people as we should: as equals.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not protest;
I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me. - Martin Niemöller, 1892-1984