The Faces of Racism are being Forgotten in America — This Memorial Commemorates 82 Children That Were Handed Over To The Nazis And Killed

This sculpture is quite moving. But its meaning is all the more sad when considered as a symbol of the current state of ignorance and hatred in the world. To say the least, I was very sad after reading this story and seeing these faces.

I’m not exactly sure how to say this, but I believe in many cases people must be and are actively shaped toward ignorance and hatred. Try to imagine how overwhelming a hatred must be in order to shape a refusal in over 1/3 of Americans to believe that over 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust while disregarding so much evidence to the contrary. I find it hard to imagine, much less comprehend.

Yet it apparently does exist. It exists in a country where we once stood for all that is good. It exists in a country where we once fought those so monstrous as to seek out and murder children such as these. It exists at a time when we have the accumulated lessons of history to learn from and, if we wish, to benefit from.

It exists. My God.

We need to know just how bad “our worst” can look like. We need to be continually reminded of that. The cost of ignorance and forgetfulness can be found in the faces of this sculpture. Maybe it would help if we could somehow continually imagine what this sculpture would look like if our own children’s and grandchildren’s faces were added to it.

One of the primary reasons I chose to enter military service was to hopefully do something, anything, to help ensure that something like the Holocaust would never occur again. I cannot help but feel a very real sense of failure upon reading this, upon realizing that the lessons of this and other similar sculptures of remembrance have been lost to many. It frightens me for our future.

Never again.