Remembering the Holocaust in the digital age

Barbara Spiegler Goldstein is particularly moved by photographs of train tracks that led to the camps where 6 million Jews and others were murdered.

The tracks show that the Nazi’s genocide was carefully planned. The builders of the tracks, the planners of the routes and others – all had to know.

The photographs overwhelm emotions, but also teach us important lessons from that horrible period of time, 1933 to 1945, and our own time as genocides occur around the globe.

This year, Yom Hashoah – or Holocaust Remembrance Day – is observed April 21. Candles will be lit around the globe in remembrance.

Locally, the Holocaust Education Resource Council is planning a series of educational opportunities from March to May not only to help us remember, but also to help the schools meet state mandates.

In 1994, the Florida Legislature passed the Holocaust Education Act, which requires all school districts to incorporate lessons on the Holocaust as part of public school instruction, an unfunded – or barely funded – mandate.

To get the conversation started in the community, Goldstein has set up a HERC Facebook page.

HERC’s third annual Student Essay/Art Contest is being formally announced in the schools, in the Tallahassee Democrat and on the HERC Web site this week as part of the activities. The deadline for submissions is April 24.

A series of programs and speakers will take place around town as well. The first is the Afikim Exhibit at the LeRoy Collins Public Library from April 17-22 to honor liberators from World War II. The exhibit recognizes American soldiers who liberated concentration camp survivors and nurtured them back to life. A multimedia installation, it features photographs and interactive kiosks with oral histories.

And an awards ceremony is planned for May 17 at the Challenger Learning Center.

But the centerpiece of the HERC offerings will be photographs.

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