centropa 2016 - some thoughts about the beginning


Dear  Centropa members

It is so very surprising to see so many teachers willing to spend there summer time vacation to deal with not very easy issues . The main idea expressd by many of us was the will to teach our students to see the other, to open there eyes to other ways of living, and to deal with the complexity of human history, especally the sad hstory of the twentieth century.

For me learning and teaching  about  the holocaust is an obligation one can not escape from, despite the pain.

I would like to share with you a poem which can explain this ambivalence.

Poem by Yehuda Amichai

Let the memorial hill remember

''let  the memorial hill remember instead of me,

that's what it's here for.Let the par in memory of remember,

Let the street that's named for remember,

let the rolling Thorah scroll remember, let the prayer

for the memory of dad remember. Let the flags remember...

Let the beasts of the field and birds of havens eat and remember.

Let all of them remember so I could  rest.''

But I can't forget

Rachel