As a kid, I was surrounded by people who went on and on about "Never Forget." Holocaust survivor and educator Rose Van Thyn was one. And each time she visited my school, she went on about it too. She had a conviction in her voice--like she really believed it could happen here.
Rose was sincere and she'd been through a lot. She literally had a number tattooed on her arm. But I took her warnings with a grain of salt. I think all the kids did. No one really believed her. Because that was a long time ago. It was Europe. And this is America.
Nevertheless, Rose spent her entire adult life in north Louisiana warning anyone who would listen. She never stopped. Then she died in 2010. Her husband Louis, also a Holocaust survivor, had died in 2008. I never heard about either and had to google to find out.
That made me curious enough to start researching other famous Holocaust educators and Nazi hunters to see who was still around. They had figured so prominently in my childhood of the 1980s and 1990s.
I found most of them had passed in just the last few years.
Simon Wiesenthal, died 2005
Elliot Welles, died 2006
Rose Van Thyn, died 2010
Tuviah Friedman, died 2011
Elie Wiesel, died 2016
Simon Wiesenthal, died 2005
Elliot Welles, died 2006
Rose Van Thyn, died 2010
Tuviah Friedman, died 2011
Elie Wiesel, died 2016
And it occurred to me, that with the passing of that generation, I don't think today's resurgence of fascism--and the enthusiasm for it--is a coincidence.
Those folks were unrelenting. They knew what we took for granted: That Nazis weren't an aberration. They were regular people. Your friend. Your neighbor. Your uncle who forwards racist memes. Nazis are what happens when hate goes unchecked by polite people who fear confrontation.
I don't think I fully understood the urgency of Rose's warnings when I was younger. Now that I'm older, I understand power. I know people don't change. Most importantly, I know that when a leader flouts rule of law and begins "othering" minorities, the time for civility is over.
