All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.
~ Edmund Burke, 1756
This column has as is birthplace 758 North Pleasant St. in Amherst, leading up to the campus of UMass Amherst. I’ve passed by this building thousands of times over my 26 years of residence in the Pioneer Valley but never took any note of it. Several days ago, I had the opportunity — a gift, really — to tour the entire inside of this unimposing residence-like edifice. While I have driven by this spot too many times to count, I also never knew that it serves as the intimate and comfortable confines of the UMass Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies. It is the type of one-room museum that one rarely experiences in our contemporary world, both because of its small physical scale along with its concurrent broad historical reach. Beyond serving as a museum, the institute also includes varied public programming and scholarly research groups.
This permanent and traveling exhibit (entitled “A Reason to Remember: Roth, Germany, 1933-1942”) tells an incredibly poignant and powerful story about five Jewish families embedded in a tiny (500 residents) community in the hamlet of Roth, Germany. It’s an epic tale over many generations, pointing out the larger historical context of these five families far before, up to, through, and beyond the Holocaust in Germany 85 years ago. I attended a morning program with 12 other people, all who have been actively engaged in Jewish themes and issues. We hailed from up and down the valley, and I knew only three of these folks from previous life experience.
To our good fortune, we were met by and provided the opportunity to speak with and hear from Deborah Roth-Howe, a surviving descendant of one of the five families and the daughter of Herbert Roth, whose nuclear family was fortunate enough to escape to Chicago. With her was Hannah Pollin-Galay, the recently hired director of the institute who also serves as a UMass faculty member in the departments of History and Judaic and Near Eastern Studies. Hannah offered a brief and meaningful welcome, while Deborah served as tour guide as our small group moved from panel to panel through the small and impactful space. This combination of direct, lived, personal experience and historical context provided much-needed depth and dimension to our time together.
When one first comes across the sheer number of human beings who lost their lives during (and following) the Holocaust, it sounds downright daunting, too large to assimilate. The narrative itself is so overwhelming that it can sometimes feel beyond the scope of our belief and understanding. What this institute building (really, just a room) offers is far the opposite: it is a deep, searing, and painful glimpse into the lives and deaths of a mere five families — the only Jews at that time to live in this tiny rural village, nearby to modern-day Marburg, Germany. We were all blessed to hear many of Deborah’s “insider’s stories” regarding her family and the other four families in Roth. At many points, she became quite emotional when sharing some of the many sordid details about the trails they either left behind or succumbed to, depending on some of the many tragic events and circumstances there.
Although it didn’t really need to be said with this particular group of visitors, the analogy from the political and historical situation in 1930s/1940s Germany and the United States since 2015 (and going back much further and deeper in time) was, sadly, incredibly ripe and impossible to overlook. One very evocative panel described the eight steps to state-sanctioned murder, authored by Raul Hilberg. Here at home in the U.S., we seem to be actively transitioning from Stage Five (“Identification”) to Stage Six (“Force”) at the beginning of year two of the second edition of the Trump administration. Trump et al have thus far managed to bludgeon us through the steps of Segregation, Deprivation, Removal, and Restriction, and we seem inexorably to be moving into Riddance and the Hidden Ultimate Goal of Genocide. The compare/contrast analogy is too direct and too clear for any comfort. If this cannot spur us into more radical yet safe and peaceful action, woe unto us!
What is clear in both historical situations is how quickly and thoroughly political and economic circumstances change. It’s abundantly clear at this time that what happened in Nazi Germany is upon us now, both in the United States and many nations abroad. This is no longer rocket science nor a long-term projection: it is with us, and we are in the midst of a massive shift from a relatively successful democracy to a demoralizing and frightening other way of life.
One need only take an hour or two at the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies at 758 North Pleasant St. in Amherst to become grounded in this reality. As we look at and into five families in one small community in our fractured world, we experience (second-hand) what trauma is and feels like. The reasons to commit to resistance and action are now incredibly numerous and urgent. To remain silent and stand still in the midst of observing and experiencing our government pull us apart speaks to collusion and a lack of ethics and righteousness. If you feel you need greater motivation to move into some form of anti-Trump action, perhaps you might consider planning a visit to the permanent and traveling exhibit, “A Reason to Remember: Roth, Germany, 1933-1942.”
Daniel Cantor Yalowitz writes a regular column in the Recorder. A developmental and intercultural psychologist, he has facilitated change in many organizations and communities around the world. His two most recent books are “Journeying with Your Archetypes” and “Reflections on the Nature of Friendship.” Reach out to him at danielcyalowitz@gmail.com.