For Survivors the Holocaust Is Personal: Why Comparisons Can Be Dangerous

Brothers Emanuel and Avram Rosenthal wear yellow stars in the Kovno ghetto shortly before they were rounded up and killed in March 1944. Their uncle had asked for the photo to be taken and received a copy after the war.—US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Shraga Wainer

Have you noticed how often people call someone they disagree with a Nazi? Or compare controversial rules and laws to the Nazi persecution of Jews? For Holocaust survivors, these comparisons are not casual references. They evoke the most traumatic moments of their lives: friends who turned on them, a cherished sibling murdered, constant fear because of their identity.

The Holocaust is human history. From it we can learn how societies fail to protect their own and the dangers of unchecked antisemitism and hate. In this digital program, hear survivors describe their personal experiences in video testimony, and explore how careless comparisons can be both painful and dangerous.