Family member of Holocaust survivor speaks on the 79th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- January 27 is Holocaust Remembrance Day, a time to reflect on the horrors millions faced during World War II. But a representative for the Anti-Defamation League and former city representative in El Paso says, the lessons learned from the Holocaust are being forgotten.
"What we have seen with the Holocaust is that it didn't start in Auschwitz and Birkenau, and Bergen-Belsen and the other major extermination camps. It started when neighbors were telling on themselves. It started when people were (discriminating), and countries, and cities, and states created discriminatory law against Jewish people. That dehumanization is what led to the Shoah, to the Holocaust," said Peter Svarzbein, the Community Engagement Manager for the ADL in El Paso.
More than 6 million Jewish people were killed as a result of the Holocaust. Svarzbein's own grandmother, Cecilia Camp, survived it. She was one of just two survivors in her family.
"The lesson of the Holocaust is that when good people stay silent in the face of hate, terrible things happen. My own family has seen that, with my own grandmother being one of two siblings out of 12 to survive the war," he said.
But Svarzbein said hatred is not limited to one group, and it is not something that he said he far too prevalent today. He said according to the ADL, anti-Semitic incidents have gone up almost 400% in the last several months.
"We've also seen in El Paso what happens when we let hate unchecked in our country. And we saw it on August 3rd, 2019. When somebody that was enabled and full of racist rhetoric and hate in his heart, drove 11 hours to El Paso to commit the worst domestic terrorist attack in El Paso's history," he said. "When one group is targeted, one group is dehumanized, it doesn't just stop with one group."
Svarzbein said to fight against hate, good people must not stay silent in the face of it.
"If you see someone, whether it's a coworker or a neighbor, that is being racist or anti-Semitic or other sort of discriminatory, it's important to speak up. Because left unchecked, hate enabled and hate unchecked can lead towards real world violence," he said.
