Marcus Gravey, a famous Jamaican political leader and journalist, once said "A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture are like a tree without roots" (Marcus Gravey). People need to remember the history in order to live, just like a tree needs ist root to survive. One of the biggest reasons why we should remember our history is to prevent history from repeating itself. Our history full of a lot of great moments like the first man on the moon or the invention of the incandescent light bulb by Thomas Edison, but on the other hand our history full with horrible events like the 100 years' war between England and France, and the Holocaust. During WW2, Hitler, and the Nazis ruled in Germany and are known by their cruel treatment of anyone who was a little different from them. During World War II, the Nazis killed more than 6 million Jews, more than 10 million non-Jewish slaves and more than 3 million Union Soviet people died. If we remember these events and those people who died because of the Nazis, we can prevent similar incidents in the future.

Although the holocaust happened in the 20th century, it is remembered in a different way in Israel, Germany, Hungary, and the USA. It is important to understand what is the "Holocaust" is and how it affects our current world. My research question is why it is important to remember the holocaust and how we can prevent some similar cases in the future. First, I will explore the meaning of Holocaust and I will explain what is the holocaust. Then, I will provide major events that happened during the holocaust. In the end, I will explain why it is important to remember the holocaust and I will show the impacts of the holocaust on our current world.

First, I want to explain what is the holocaust by looking at the article “The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking” by Eric Lichtblau. Eric, a writer who work for The New York Time, explains that the holocaust was a mass kill of Jewish people and the making of the slaves during WW2. Not only did the Jews suffer from the Nazis, a lot of other people like homosexuals and Soviet Union prisoners and a lot of other people were killed during WW2. The author gives us facts about the holocaust so we will be able to realize the size of it. He explains to us that, Hitler, Germany leader between 1933 to 1945 did not like the Jew, as matter of fact, he hated them so much just because they were different so when he became Germany’s president in 1933, he decided to send them to ghettos and camps all over Europe in order to use them for a slave labor and to kill them. Recent research found 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps all over Europe; a tremendous number that helps us realize the extent of the holocaust. The people who stayed alive in the ghettos and the work camps suffered from starvation and many of them even died because of the small amount of food provided by the Nazis. People were also sent to participate in human experimentations and people died from lack of medical services from the Nazis.

One of the many factors responsible for the massive killing by the Nazis is European government. I chose to use the article “A Post-Mortem Of The Holocaust In Hungary: A Probing Interpretation Of The Causes” by Randolph Braham because he explain the relationship between Hungary’s and the number of murdered Jews in Hungary during the holocaust. First, it is important to mention that the Jews who lived in Europe before WW2 saw themselves as European citizens before their religion. They were normal citizens with all the rights and they did not bother anyone. So, when the Nazis invaded to Hungary in the beginning of the WW2, the Jews trusted the Hungarian government to protect them from the Nazis, but instead, they helped the Nazis to find out and murder as many Jews as possible. Even before Germany invaded to Hungary, the government acted against the Jews by enacting laws against them. Before WW2, the number of Jews who lived in Hungary were 450,000 people, compared to our day when there is only 50,000.

The best way that the generation who was not in the holocaust can learn about the holocaust is by listening to holocaust survivor’s stories. Those people who experienced the holocaust can provide us a small part of what the holocaust was. I chose to use the story of a holocaust survivor about the day when he was liberated by the Soviet Union soldiers. The survivor chose to start by telling us about his camp. He was a little child when he lost all of his family during WW2 because of the Nazis. He tells us that he used to wake up early because of the poor condition in the camp and he could not sleep a lot because of all the crying people it was not a place to a little child as he explains that it was not surprising when the guy next to you did not wake up in the morning. One day, he woke up early as always, but he did not see any guards in the towers; therefore, he decided to go to the main gate to see if there is something going on. When he reached the gate, he saw the Soviet Union's soldiers. The soldiers cracked the metal chain on the gate and told them do not worry, doctors, food, and medicines are coming to help them all.

“All human beings are commingled out good and evil” (Robert L Stevenson). Just like Robert L Stevenson is claim, not everyone is evil. During the holocaust, a lot of people risked their lives in order to save Jews. Even though it was illegal to help them by providing food, a shelter or a way out of German borders, a lot of people chose to help Jews knowing they were risking their lives and their family just because they had different opinions as Hitler and the Nazis. By using the article "Marion Pritchard, Who Risked Her Life to Rescue Jews From Nazis, Dies at 96" that wrote by Richard Sandomir, I want to show that not everyone was evil. The article tells us a story of heroism about a Dutch woman name, Marion Pritchard who risk her life by helping Jews. Marion was a young student when the war started. Marion and her father, Mr. Pritchard, helped them by using her father’s occupation as a judge. They arranged them false identification paper in order to avoid the Nazis. Although they could have been killed by the Nazis, they chose to risk their lives and their family just because they wanted to save as many Jews as they could. It is important to notice that both of them received the Wallenberg medal, a humanitarian award.

By reading the article "What is the Holocaust” written by Moshe Zimmermann, we can see the wide impacts of the holocaust on our society. First, Israel, created after WWII because of the holocaust. People in the UN (United Nation) decided that one of the biggest problem of Jews during WWII was that they did not had a Jews country to protect them like the Christians has United State of America or Great Britain and the Muslims has Saudi Arabia or Iran. Another change caused by the holocaust is that the holocaust changed the way we learn History. In Israel, the students learning about the holocaust since elementary school not as wide as adult because they are still children. When they are old enough (High School) they are learning deeper, they are learning about all the shocking details and when they are in the 11th grade, most of them flight to Poland from the school in order to see in their eyes the work camps, the ghettos, and the killing camps. Compare to Israel, research found a lack of knowledge in Germany and the United State of America. Germany citizens, does not learn a lot about the holocaust in school and because of the lack of knowledge in their education system so they act with disrespectful to memorial sites. This fact just show the size and the important of why we all need to learn about our history because disrespect is not even close to the worse case scenario. 

It is important to understand why we need to learn history and what can happen if we abandon our history. The article "'Yolocaust: How should you have at a Holocaust memorial?" By Joel Gunter, tells us the story about the website "Yolocaust". Yolocaust is a new website developed by Mr. Shapira. Mr. Shapira saw what happened when people have no respect for their history, and noticed people uploading pictures online in holocaust memorial sites with disrespect. Mr. Shapira found a great way to deal with the social media problem. He built a website named "Yolocaust," then he took a few pictures that he found online and instead of posting the pictures in the same way, he would edit them. He added a different background to the pictures with scenes of the holocaust. By doing this, he tried to minimize the disrespectful acts around memorial sites. People who would find themselves on his website and would want to remove their picture would need to send him an email saying that they are sorry. Mr. Shapira believes that by creating the website, people will think twice before they are do anything disrespectful.

Another big problem that is caused by the lack of education is when people deny their past. The article "Anti-Semantic 'historian' David Irving Claims New Support from Teenage Holocaust denying Trump Fans" written by Kentish Ben, talks about David Irving. David is a man who denies the holocaust despite the major historical evidence. David claims that the holocaust did not happen, and he also said that during WWII, only small number of Jews died from the Nazis. He said that death camps were a lie. The biggest problem with people like David is that young people see him online, see his extreme opinions, and believe it because they do not know about their history. David told the author that a lot of people send him money, and shows how people can be a bad influence on others when they don’t know their history. 

An example from our current world of what can happen when history repeats itself is in the article “ISIS Destroys Part of Roman Amphitheater in Palmyra, Syria,” written by Biledsky. He talks about ISIS, (Islamic State in Syria) and how they are a radical military Muslim group in the middle east. They are known for their terrorist attacks all over the world including the United States of America. They believe that they need to kill everyone who is not a Muslim. They are similar to the Nazis because the Nazis and Hitler killed everyone who was against their opinions or just a little bit different. Furthermore, they are known for disrespecting history, and they have destroyed a lot of historical structures that oppose their Muslim ideology. This example shows exactly what would happen if we forget our past. By looking at ISIS, we can see the connection between the history and the future. 

By looking at all the sources, we can understand why history it is so important to us and why our future depends on our history. The holocaust was a great example as to why we should keep learning from our history, and why we should prevent the upcoming of the next holocaust. We can see that first, we need to fix our education system. Then we need to use the society’s power to deal with cases of when people act with disrespect for our history and memorial sites.
