COLORADO SPRINGS, CO — Americans and the Holocaust. What did Americans know?
Father John Pawlikowski hopes a traveling exhibit at the East Library in Colorado Springs called "Americans and the Holocaust" helps better explain that, and what more could have been done to help stop it. He's one of the original board members of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and to tour the exhibit with him is to discover part of the past that you may not know.
A poll on one of the exhibit walls asks, "Do you approve or disapprove of the Nazi treatment of Jews in Germany."
The numbers show 6 percent of respondents approved; 94 percent disapproved. Those numbers are part of a poll in 1938 from the American Institute of Public Opinion.
Perhaps equally as disturbing is a text on the exhibit wall that says, "Even under it's restrictive immigration laws the U.S. Government could have issued tens of thousands more visas to Jews fleeing Nazism."
"That's where I think the antisemitism comes in," Pawlikowski said.
When asked to define antisemitism, Pawlikowski said. "It's basically a desire to limit, seriously limit, and, in some cases, even exterminate people who have Jewish blood."
That antisemitism from the Nazi German regime led to the mass murder of 6 million Jews. It started in 1933 when Adolf Hitler was voted into power. It did not end until more than 12 years later in 1945 when the Allied powers defeated Nazi Germany in World War II.
"I think the people now need to learn how easily a so-called democratic society can be subverted into an autocratic society," Pawlikowski said. "The Germany that Hitler began with was considered one of the high points of Western civilization, very democratic, very avant-garde in many ways. He managed, I think he clearly understood, how you can undermine it by taking hold gradually of every major part of the society, the political side, but also the judicial side, the educational side and so on. Gradually he influenced and took over control of all the major forces in a democratic society."
Pawlikowski says if we don't keep learning about it, talking about it, it will continue to happen again and again.
"I think we have to talk to people about it," Pawlikowski said. "Just giving them reading materials may not work. I think there has to be an approach which really brings the faces and the sufferings of people to the forefront."
Pawlikowski will be speaking Wednesday, September 20th at the Celeste Theater at Colorado College (825 North Cascade Avenue) during an event sponsored by the Greenberg Center for Learning and Tolerance. It's called "Remembering for the future: The Holocaust, uniting against hate and building a more compassionate tomorrow." He will be joined by Scott Levin from the Anti-Defamation League Mountain States. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the program will begin at 6:30 p.m.. Admission is free but registration is required. Click here for more information.
____
Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.
