Dr. Patrick Deane, distinguished guests, dear family and friends, graduates of the class of 2003, ladies and gentlemen.
First of all, I would like to thank all responsible for this most cherished honour vested on me today by The University of Winnipeg, so I say a big “Yaashe Koah”, which in Hebrew, expresses much more than the usual thank you.
It is easy to accept an honour; it is more difficult to rise to its standards. Thank you for your confidence, and I hope to live up to it.
As I stand before you, attired in the gown, which symbolizes knowledge, dignity, and justice, the kaleidoscope of memories flashes the unforgettable pictures of the gruesome, bitter months in 1944-45, which were completely void of dignity and justice. So in fact everything today seems surreal.
A very emotional part of receiving this honour is the invitation to address the graduates and the hope of gaining their confidence. I trust that this graduating class is immersed in the ideology of tolerance and freedom of expression for which The University of Winnipeg is well recognized. I am also positive that the graduates are well aware that Canada did not always pride itself with the best record in human rights and tolerance. The Canadian Government has discriminated over the years, against Jews, Ukrainians, Japanese, native people, Chinese, women and others. Being honoured today attests to the important changes which have taken place in Canada since then and I bow to those men and women who fought for these changes.
Marcel Proust expressed it so beautifully, and I quote: “We don’t receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey that no one can take for us, or spare us.” unquote.
I am not a professional educator, I am a Holocaust survivor, and my message today about compassion, hope, and tolerance is not an easy task, but rewarding for me. Sometimes we all need strong words to awake us from the lethargy of stupor in our daily lives and this is an ideal place for it, having 400 young graduates ready to face the challenges of tomorrow, head on.
So I shall present you with a statement, and I quote: “I am not interested in an intellectual education, by knowledge I shall spoil the German youth.” Heavenly thinking people, all spiritual people are dead, since the taste of life had been taken away from them. Every act has its flavour, even the act of crime. In comparison to this, every passivity is tasteless and alien to life. Thus, there is a Divine right to exterminate the ones who stand still. The Mt. Sinai tablets lost their value. The conscience is only a Jewish invention. Against the Christian principle of the infinite value of individual soul and his personal responsibility, I place with a clear mind the principle of nothingness and valueless-ness of the individual. Instead of the formation of the soul by great suffering and the death of the godly saviour comes the reformation according to the life, and action of new leader who liberates the masses of believers from the shackles of the free decision”. Unquote
– Adolph Hitler, “Mein Kampf” 1923
This was the synopsis on life and death, which permeated the Nazi society to the last days of the Third Reich.
Ghetto, labour camps, and the last form of incarceration, the Vernichtung Lager — destruction camps became my institutions of higher learning: history, social studies, political science, spirituality, and theology were the integral part of this experience.
Intolerance and indifference were the most important components of this curriculum of bestiality and hate in the years 1941-45. I graduated from this academy of perversion and shame — “cum lauda”, with a clear mind, broken in body but alive.
I always felt that those experiences give me the right, but also the responsibility to speak to young people openly and candidly. So I shall do it right now.
Teaching Holocaust makes us understand suffering, death, indignity, and evil, and yet Holocaust sends our way a very strong message to remember our responsibility to the future generations, and focuses our attention to the dignity of human spirit.
Teaching Holocaust makes us realize that it takes place today, again, all over the world. Even though smaller in scope and intensity, it is here, and threatens our sheer existence and the fabric of our society.
To teach Holocaust means to teach the total dehumanization of man and to understand that the “Final Solution” was the end product of modern technology of death, combined with the political will of a legitimate government and total abdication of responsibility on the part of educators, theologian, and political leaders.
To teach Holocaust is to question the educational system in our society now. Is it right for us to justify an educational system structured on the sheer emphasis on excellence in math, chemistry, computer science, and technology without spending equivalent resources for development of a new generation of young people dedicated to decency, tolerance, and justice?
Within a very short time, Nazi scientists and educators were able to poison the minds of brilliant people, product of the best schools and universities of the Weimar republic .
Doctors, architects, scientists, clergymen and theologians became active members of the most destructive killing apparatus in modern history. The elite of the most progressive education system in Europe became wholesale killers.
I believe strongly in exposing this evil to young people, and yet at the same time explain to them the reason why during this most tragic period in human history some people risked their lives to save a complete stranger from his or her death. The only shining stars on this endless firmament of inhumanity and hate were the Righteous Gentiles, their heroic effort tragically dimmed by the sheer magnitude of the crime.
Jan Masarek, the son of the first president of Czechoslovakia, an ambassador to England, and after the Second World War, the minister of foreign affairs, expressed his own views on tolerance and freedom, and I quote: “It should be taught in schools along with reading and writing. Only then would children grow up with the understanding of what freedom and compassion mean.” Unquote.
As our technological sophistication expands at an alarming rate, our moral and intellectual sensibilities are left far behind.
So we have to ward off our complaisance, and fully understand that progress cannot and must not be achieved at the price of destruction and hate, lest we repeat the mistakes of the last century.
And our creed must be that humaneness finally must be the true measure of progress if we are to avoid the tragedies of our past generations.
The future societies will demand not only brilliant lawmakers, but creative thinkers and teachers to shape their destiny.
They shall achieve peace and order, not through violence, hate, and coercion but through abolishment of every kind of slavery be it political, economical, or spiritual, through intelligence and respect.
And this is my message to you, dear graduates: First let me congratulate you on your achievement. You are half way to the summit, the peak is within your reach, but as you embark now on last most perilous journey of your destination to become future leaders in every phase of communal needs, please join the forces of peace and tolerance to help it become a reality. Every man constantly produces thoughts, words, ideas, and deeds committing them either to the powers of light or darkness. He is constantly engaged either in building or in destroying. The choice is yours, and yours only.
I am confident that you will become great builders of the new society, the society of justice and truth, so, please, accept my best wishes to your own fine future.
I thank you for the honour; it reinforces my hopes that the dream I carry, one day shall become a reality. I dedicate this honour to Shelley, the most beautiful human being, my daughter.
Thank you.
