When I was given the opportunity to cover Simon Weisenthal Center’s World-Renowned “Courage to Remember” Holocaust exhibit, I hesitated. Truth be known, I suspect apathy, fear, and even denial will cause many to find the nearest exit or will provide an excuse to “be too busy” with their own personal insignificance to make an appearance.
Where: The opening ceremony for “The Courage to Remember: the Holocaust 1933-1945,” is cosponsored by the Orlando Police Department. The exhibit features more than 200 exclusive photographs that cannot be seen anywhere else in the world and offers powerful insight into the Holocaust through four distinct themes:
* Nazi Germany, 1933-1938
* Moving Toward the “Final Solution, 1939-1941
* Annihilation in Nazi-occupied Europe, 1941-1945
* Liberation, Building New lives
After the opening ceremony, the exhibit will be on display at Valencia College East Campus, The Atrium (adjacent to the Black Box Theater) through October 19. The event is free and open to the public.
“The lessons of the Holocaust tie together past and present generations, teaching the dangerous impact of bigotry and hatred, as well as inspiring hope and new generations of forward-thinkers. In diverse communities like Orlando, the Courage to Remember exhibit is not a luxury, it is a necessity,” said Dr. Alfred Balitzer, chairman of the Foundation for California.
“The Courage to Remember” traveling exhibit, produced by the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance, presented by the Foundation for California, and made possible by a grant from SNCF, has celebrated 20 years of international acclaim and a highly successful tour throughout California and Florida. More than 400,000 people have seen the exhibit since the tour began in September 2011.
Accept my challenge; educate your children: forgotten hatred is empowered hatred.
Recognizing time has erased connections and memories have faded to splintered frames, the morrow of our collective consciousness cannot be allowed to suffocate by the tightened clutches of cultural complacency.
Originated by George Sanyayana’s “Reason in Common Sense,” the first volume of his “The Life of Reason,” the following statement comes to mind and belongs in this article (no doubt many have heard of the quote but few know from where it came):
“Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.”
Adding to George Sanyanana’s powerful words, a world where today hides from yesterday echoes hollowness, fueling emptiness via ignorance. Paralleled by no other historic event, the lessons, sacrifices, and the pain from the holocaust must find permanent residence in our heart, in our children’s heart, and in the heart of future generations.
Accept my challenge, show the world we care and that we have the “courage to remember.”
Forget me not… For those running from themselves, rationalizing absence or hiding within a cocoon of self-serving refraction, you are holding hands to cultural and social numbness and sending a message to your family, your community, and the world that hatred, bigotry, and discrimination is an acceptable outlet. In other words, that you approve this message.
Accept my challenge, don’t turn away; don’t approve the message.
I will see you Thursday at the opening ceremony,
Danny Huffman, MA, CEIP, CPRW, CPCC
West Orlando News Online
Got Twitter? Shadow me @dannyatecs
Although a horrible moment in history, it’s good to remember the stories of hope & humanity that prevailed over evil. Seems like an interesting exhibit that I would like to see.