Please remember

Did you know today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day? I did not, until reading of it in the newspaper.

Yet the Holocaust has been on my mind quite a bit this month. I recently read The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak, a remarkable work of fiction set in Nazi Germany. At a discussion a couple of weeks ago, I was deeply disturbed when one lady said it was a ludicrous plot device to have the German characters harbor a Jew. No one would have done it for real, she said. She based this on public sentiment when she lived in Germany in the 1960s. The Jews were despised and had it coming to them, she claimed, supporting her far-reaching assertion with the story of one cheapskate American Jewish man who cheated her husband in a carpool.

I was too shocked to respond then. But I'm responding now. This woman is someone I respect very much, which is perhaps why her views shook me so much.

No one deserves the treatment meted out by Hitler and his minions. No one person, no one group. No matter one's views on the victims, the Holocaust was a tragic blot on our world's history. To dismiss the tragedy is as bad as denying it every happened.

We must remember.

I need to believe that there were good people during that period, who stood up for what was right, even if not many chose to tell their experiences. Or lived to tell them. My faith in human nature is too shaken otherwise.

Perhaps that's why Corrie ten Boom's autobiographical work The Hiding Place ranks with The Book Thief on my list of all-time favorite books. Yes, ten Boom's family suffered terrible consequences for hiding Jews, but this tale will leave your spirit soaring. I highly recommend both of these books. You'll never forget them.