I follow the Auschwitz Museum on Twitter.
Each day they commemorate an individual victim. A photo, a birthday, a name, an occupation. How they arrived at the camp. The (often tragic) outcome.
This week marked Holocaust Remembrance Day. I tend to think of the holocaust as “really old history” until I realize many of the victims were born after my parents.
Why? Why would I purposely seek out this sort of sadness? Isn’t there enough sorrow in the world without looking backward at these individual reminders of human cruelty?
I do it because it’s important to remember. It’s important to remind myself that it happened and that the 6 million holocaust victims were individuals with families and hopes and dreams. And it’s important to remember that those who perpetrated and enabled the atrocities were ordinary people as well, people who somehow became ensnared in mass murder.
When I turn away because it’s unpleasant, I increase the possibility of a recurrence. Knowing and remembering matter.
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January is also Human Trafficking Awareness Month. Despite all that’s happening right now, we need to remember that more than 36 million human beings still live in slavery.
I wish I could show you the faces and names of the kids at the HOME OF HOPE. I can’t, because doing so would endanger them and those who care for them. But it’s important to remember.
They’re individual precious children with families and hopes and dreams. Despite tremendous obstacles, their mothers love them and want desperately for them to have the education and economic opportunities they receive because of the HOME OF HOPE.
We ride bikes to help these kids grow up in the freedom God intended. You can join us.
Knowing and remembering matter.