by Keren Setton, Chen Wenxian, Shang Hao
JERUSALEM, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- "One of the things I take from my study of the Holocaust is how precious and how important is the preservation of human dignity," said Dr. Robert Rozett, a senior historian at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II (WWII). Ahead of the International Day of Peace to be observed next month, the United Nations has decided that the 2020 theme for the day is "Shaping Peace Together," calling on people to spread compassion, kindness and hope in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unfortunately, some people have been trying to use the virus to stoke discrimination and hatred, which are exactly the roots of awful events in human history, such as WWII and the Holocaust.
"I really think that people around the globe need to treat people with human dignity and I don't think that happens yet enough," Rozett told Xinhua.
"We hope that when you understand a horrible event like WWII and the Holocaust, of what it is and what it wrought, that it will certainly make you much less likely to want to engage in violence and war ... it helps you understand the price ... certainly there is a price of racism and the price of anti-Semitism," he said.
Some six million Jews were murdered at the hands of the Nazi regime in the genocide of the European Jews between 1941 and 1945 across German-occupied Europe.
Yad Vashem, established in 1953, is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the dead, honoring Jews who fought against their Nazi oppressors and Gentiles who selflessly aided Jews in need.
With a collection of over 200 million documents, 170,000 publications and over half a million photos, Yad Vashem is the leading center for Holocaust research in the world.
One of the important elements Yad Vashem uses are the visual records that they have collected from the Holocaust -- photos and videos which bring the memories to life and help people visualize the horror.
The most stunning place in the center, located in the midst of a green Jerusalem forest, is the Hall of Names, a repository in which a testimony, a short biography, of each Holocaust victim is stored.
So far, there have been over 2 million such pages stored and there is room for 6 million -- the total number of Jews who perished in the Holocaust.
"What we do is we try to teach history, a history that shows what happens when there isn't peace," Rozett said. "When you are doing a good job teaching, you are laying the groundwork for people to think and to reach conclusions."
As the International Day of Peace approaches, it is increasingly clear that keeping the memory alive is part and parcel in trying to prevent such events from happening in the future.
Rozett believes teaching is very necessary to everything he and his colleagues are doing, even though it is not sufficient by itself. Enditem
