We tend to assume that by remembering crimes committed in the past, people learn to be tolerant, sensible, compassionate, sensitive and kind. This assumption is behind the many successful projects, which have been launched to keep all memory of World War II alive and to ensure that succeeding generations understand that the Holocaust began with irrational hatred directed toward an innocent people.
Many museums have been established in the West to remind the world that racism led Hitler to send millions of Jews to concentration camps. Many films, many authors, many world historians, a powerful media, survivors of the Nazi terror and children of the Holocaust victims invite people to reflect on the collective punishment and the state terrorism that were directed against innocent Jews in the first half of the last century. They tell succeeding generations of men, women and children that Hitler considered the victims of the Holocaust threats to be confronted and evil to be eliminated. They explain that hatred and racism fostered state brutality and gave birth to acts of terror in which innocent people perished and cities were destroyed.
Most of us were born after the departure of Hitler from our world and the defeat of the Nazis; yet we have been all trained and conditioned to hate the “Fuhrer”, who initiated, applauded and committed crimes against innocent people, because of their race and their religion.
Has remembering the cruelty of the Nazis and reflecting on their crimes made the people of our “global village” kind, unselfish, helpful and compassionate? Has our loathing of Hitler and our hatred of all that he represented made us true lovers and active promoters of peace and justice? Has our reflection on an ugly past increased our determination to eliminate racism, injustice, hubris and torture from our global society?
Has our antipathy toward past atrocities worked as effective antidote against the development and use of sophisticated, deadly weapons against our fellow citizens? Have lessons drawn from the devastation, the misery and the disasters caused by two world wars prevented us from creating divisions, waging wars, destroying cities, demolishing homes, torturing prisoners, killing unarmed civilians and committing hair-raising crimes against humanity?
Unfortunately, the many deplorable facts on the ground defeat the argument that reflecting on past crimes is a therapeutic exercise and that remembering past horrors breeds kindness, love and compassion in the heart of man.
Ethnic cleansing is a present terror, not a thing of the past. Inflicting humiliation on the weak is a pastime practiced by the powerful and inducing starvation on helpless men, women and children is a new weapon of ethnic cleansing and mass destruction.
Our modern wars are a reminder of George Orwell’s prophetic, mid-century novel 1984, where there is a perpetual war with “Estasia” or “Eurasia” and where prisoners, “had simply disappeared”. Equality is a popular buzzword that decorates many political speeches and reminds us of Animal Farm, where Napoleon utters the memorable words, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”.
Alas! People are equal neither in life nor in death. While the lives of the powerful are protected and cherished and the dead of the privileged are counted, mourned and decently buried, the oppressed, the powerless, the suppressed, the victims of injustice, racism, occupation, sectarian conflicts, ethnic-cleansing have no faces and no names. Their mutilated, dead bodies are rarely recovered, and if recovered rarely identified. Their families are often deprived of the solace of giving them a decent burial. Their absence is noticed and mourned only by their grieving parents, their widowed spouses, their orphaned children and their close relatives and friends.
We always regret that our predecessors did not act in good time to rescue the victims of the Holocaust and often forget that, unlike ourselves, they did not live in an age of advanced technology.
Had they possessed our modern technology, they would have watched the Nazis commit their awful crimes and would have done their best to stop them. Many innocent souls would have been saved, the perpetuators of the crimes brought to justice and the Middle East would have been spared the unfortunate consequences of crimes committed far from its soil, by people other than its own.
With our advanced technology we communicate with each other freely and roam the world virtually. We receive up-to-date information on unfolding world events. Our attention is constantly drawn to the racism, cruelty, injustice and misery that pollute the global climate.
Our computers, our TV sets and our mobile phones show us images that break the sternest of hearts. They allow us to see and virtually experience the suffering of mankind, far and near, diseases, famine, discrimination, injustice, brutality, bloody conflicts, ruthless wars, induced starvation, demolished homes, irrational nationalism, state terrorism, natural and man made tsunamis.
What excuse do we have to act like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, remembering, reflecting on a horrific past that we cannot re-write, yet lacking the will to change our shameful present?
What actions have we taken to eliminate injustice, free the oppressed, save the tortured, stop the slaughter of innocent men, women and children? What steps have we taken to build a better future for our children?
Have we replaced the old game of “divide and rule” with a commitment to unite, respect, love and, if endowed with love and wisdom, lead by example? Have we resolved our conflicts by peaceful means? Have we treated all people, all nations and all states equally? Are no man, no woman, no child, no prisoner, no victim and no state in our global village “more equal than other”?
Have we been able to read history with an open mind and a good understanding? Have we learned that Shiites and Sunnis follow the same faith, practice the same religion and are brothers and sisters in Islam?
Do we realize that Arabs and Jews belong to the Semitic race and are cousins?
If remembering and reflecting on crimes committed in an ugly past does not help us clean our present mess, future generations will remember our mistakes, reflect on our crimes, wonder at our folly and accuse us of guilt by association.
