The Holocaust

This topic was of great interest to me for several reasons. First of all, last year I worked on a scholarship application that was for the Holocaust Rememberance Project. Basically, all I read and talked about for a month of my life was the Holocaust. I was writing a paper about how the Holocaust effects us today, but in order to do it I read a HUGE book on the Holocaust. It was very hard to read, but well worth it. Never again will I take the Holocaust lightly.

The other reason that I identify with the Holocaust is because of current genocides. In many ways, the genocide in Rwanda is what caused the civil war in Zaire in the late 1990's. Rwandans fleeing their country poured into Zaire, and they brought with them a great deal of unrest. In the end the man who took over Zaire, President Kabila, was a Rwandan refugee. This war, a direct result of genocide, forever changed my life.

Because of all of this, I greatly appreciated the opportunity that we had to hear from Elane, a Holocaust survivor. Very few people in this world will ever have that chance, and so I count myself blessed. I am doubly blessed because after class I joined a few other students in eating lunch with her. This was once in a lifetime opportunity, and I learned that not onliy is she a Holocaust survivor, she is one of the smartest and most engaging people I have ever known. She knows something about practically everything, and she has stories that really do match her lifetime. I even appreciated the fact that she is not a Christian. I think a lot of Christians would like to convince themselves the Holocaust's purpose was to cause all of the Jews to come to Christ. While some certainly did, we are fooling ourselves if we think that was the overwhelming effect of the Holocaust. Elane is a truly vibrant person who has overcome much in her life, and it was a HUGE blessing to be able to spend just an hour of my life in her presence.