| Why Study Shoah?
|
| Many today ask "Why study the Shoah?" The most common response that I have heard is
"This event happened over 50 years ago, it's time to move on." Many consider it a tragic event, even one of
the world's most horrible historical happenings, but as we move away from the event, it is seen as the property
only of historians. Nothing could be further from the truth. One may as well ask, "Why study any historical event" and
the answers to that question have had volumes written in response. But the Shoah was a very distinct point in history, theology and the story of humankind. It was a time in history when all sense of right and wrong was destroyed, morality took second place to survival and God was questioned for his goodness and sovereignty more that at any other time. Moreover, the Shoah cuts to the root of who we are, what we believe, and what we are capable of doing to each other, what we are capable of believing, and of a fundamental ontology of why we are here...at all...of what our most essential meaning is. To not study Shoah would be the far greater bewilderment. How could we not study and try to understand the point in our history in which both victim and persecutor became less than human, or when the depths and heights of human nobility and the presence of God were understood or misunderstood. How could we not ask? We will continue this discussion with an upcoming outline of the essential reasons for studying the holocaust. Elizabeth K. Best, PhD Director |
