Holocaust teaches lessons for today

As thousands gather today at the Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, they will be remembering more than the horrific tales of some of the darkest events in history.

The center tells part of the story of Chicago's suburbs, which became home to many Jews who survived the Holocaust and began new lives here. Skokie, at one time, was home to the largest number of Holocaust survivors outside of Israel. Children and grandchildren of those survivors fanned out west to growing communities like Buffalo Grove. Their children continue to plant roots in places like Mundelein and Vernon Hills.

It conveys the stories of survivors like Kildeer resident Sam Harris, museum board president, who admits, "My whole life I have not wanted to confront it." But Harris, like other survivors, felt compelled to start talking about it when some tried to deny the atrocities ever happened. They came out in force to speak out in the late 1970s, when the Nazi party wanted to march in Skokie. Harris, like other survivors, realized the only way to prevent this from happening again was to feel his pain and speak out. "I'm not just telling a story," Harris, 73, explains as he recounts the day Nazis took his family. "I can see them right now."

The realization that education was the path to prevention gave rise to Illinois passing the first law requiring schools teach about the Holocaust.

This facility is a resource for that education. Already, every slot for student tours through the end of the school this year is booked.

The sad stories are not the only thing Illinois schoolchildren will take away from their visit. The exhibits empower and challenge each of us to stand up for what's right.

It's a message that begins before visitors even enter with a memorial to the righteous who risked their own well-being to save lives. It challenges us to ask, "What would I do?" That question is even more poignant when visitors face reminders that genocide continues today.

Americans have stepped up to fight genocide in places like Bosnia-Herzegovina. It continues today in places like the Darfur region of Sudan, where the U.S. is participating in peacekeeping efforts. Those tragedies might seem too far away to engage most of us to take action. There are things we can do, though. We can write letters. We can make sure our investments aren't supporting entities that help finance these human rights abuses, for instance.

The most valuable lesson, though, might relate to conduct closer to home, where evils confront us anytime someone tells an ethnic joke or promotes a stereotype. This is the message conveyed in the museum's Miller Family Youth Exhibition. It's targeted to children age 8 to 11, but the lesson is for all of us: Speaking up is the first defense against language and bias that fuels hatred and discrimination.

This, ultimately, is what this museum is about.

It's about standing up for what's right, even if it's difficult. It's about educating ourselves to share the pain and hear the stories so we can empathize. And, ultimately, it's about doing what each of us must do to prevent injustice.