What I learned from the Holocaust during the early 1950s When I Was a 7th Grade Student in Newton

We Shouldn’t Fear Discussing the Holocaust with Anyone: Some people I know still believe that middle school students in Newton are too young to absorb the immense evils of the Holocaust. They aren’t Anti-Semites. They just believe there are certain disturbing subjects, including the Holocaust, that students should not be exposed to until later in life. I respectfully disagree. I first learned about the Holocaust as a young student in the Newton schools and the explosive impact this discovery had on me is why I feel so strongly about this issue.

The Auschwitz Commandant’s Grotesquely Evil Affidavit: I was a 7th Grade student at Weeks Junior High School in 1951 when I chanced upon William Shirer’s “End of a Berlin Diary” at the Newton Highlands Branch Library. The book’s most memorable segment was an Affidavit from the Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal drafted by Rudolf Hoess, who was the Commandant at Auschwitz for most of the War. This is still the most grotesquely evil document I have ever read. Hoess freely acknowledged that he exterminated at least 3,000,000 victims by gassing, starvation or disease and he seemed eager to tell readers about the many “improvements” he made to speed the extermination processes along.

What disturbed me most deeply were the deceptive tactics Hoess thought up to lure thousands of infants, toddlers and children into the gas chambers. I still have visual flashbacks about how terrifying their final moments must have been.

It wasn’t just the substance of what Hoess wrote that made the Affidavit so compelling, but the fact that I read it as a receptive middle school student. I’m actually quite thankful that the gruesome images Hoess projected have remained so etched in my memory for more than 70 years. This and what Shirer wrote about Joseph Goebbels propaganda machine and other depravities of the 3rd Reich blunted the odds that I would succumb to Anti-Semitic propaganda, or to hate induced attacks against any group of people. Middle School was exactly the right place to start learning about this tragic chapter in world history despite some self-inflicted emotional bumps I experienced as a result.

The Emotional Pitfalls of Learning Alone: I’m a big champion of Holocaust studies programs in the Newton schools. Most kids are a lot more resilient than we give them credit for and they are exposed to far more areas of learning than I was at their age. Still, it’s a positive sign that adult teachers, professionals and volunteers are intimately involved in the mix to guide and lead young students as they learn about the Holocaust and other major persecutions.

I did not have an adult support system in place when I began to examine the Holocaust in more detail, and I suffered unnecessary pain because of it. This was an emotionally charged and often exhausting experience for me and I suspect it always will be for most people who are willing to dive into it deeply. I am not Jewish, and for reasons I still can’t fathom, I began developing personal guilt about the Holocaust when more mature heads would have told me that the objective was to develop understanding and not guilt”.

Nobody Should Have to Travel this Difficult Road Alone: My mistake was to never talk with anyone about what I was reading and thinking, or the good and bad effects it was having on me. In those days, young male adolescents (particularly young Irish American males like me) didn’t easily share their feelings and vulnerabilities with anyone. It never dawned on me that almost every rabbi serving in Newton at the time would have been eager to help me.

Bigotry and Persecution are Both Toxic and Contagious: Holocaust studies in schools and other places can readily include segments about other groups and individuals that are currently suffering persecution or marginalization. It does not diminish the overall tragedy of the Holocaust to include other examples. In fact, it brings front and center with full force the good and bad of the human condition. While the Holocaust was a uniquely evil event, it was not a one off occurrence as more recent huge massacres from Cambodia and Rwanda to Serbia and the Middle East readily attest.

Promoting Our Common Humanity: The older I get, the more science based results I seek to help guide my thinking and the processes of my own searches for truth and verification. We simply need to include more general archeology, anthropology, geology and other earth sciences into our school curriculums and our personal consciousness. We extol what humans have accomplished since they started living in fixed agricultural communities 11,000 years ago, but this overlooks the powerful effects that still drive us from the million or so years our distant ancestors roamed an often hostile planet as hunter gatherers. I’m convinced the more we recognize the constraints these truths place on our progress and indeed our very survival, the more tolerant and more rational we will become.

I don’t think that adhering to one’s religious convictions or ethnic traditions need prevent anyone from ranging free to find friendship and companionship with people who have other connections to their religious and cultural heritage, or who have no connection at all. It’s only a problem when these beliefs escalate into tribal strife and violent recriminations over perceived differences that have no basis scientifically. I’ve been extremely fortunate in this regard. It took me considerable time to develop solid friendships with Jewish students and parents, but it happened rather quickly when I wound up as the only active member of the Newton High debating team that wasn’t Jewish. This was reinforced when I joined with many Jewish residents to support Adlai Stevenson’s 1956 Presidential campaign in Newton. Ironically, all this was taking place at the same time I was beginning to immerse myself in Irish traditional music, poetry and literatures which I’ve spent a lifetime pursuing. My passion for things Irish and Celtic never impeded my outreach to Jews and other ethnic and religious groups. In fact, I’m certain the two strains have complemented and strengthened each other.

The naturalist Edward O Wilson best describes the challenges and opportunities we all face because of who we really are:

“We live in a Star Wars civilization with godlike technology, medieval institutions and Stone Age emotions.”