Stop Genocide

A Holocaust Victim on Facebook: Crude or Compelling?

by Michelle

categories: Activism & Advocacy, Education & Engagement, The Holocaust

Published November 19, 2009 @ 11:44AM PT

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Holocaust education is important. Adolf Hitler famously quipped, "After all, who remembers the Armenians?" - education and remembrance are critical for moving the world closer to the still-hollow concept of "Never Again."

Devotees of the anti-genocide cause, both educators and advocates alike, constantly search for new ways to engage and expand their audience. But is a Facebook alter-ego of a child victim of the Holocaust going to far?

A 22-year-old Polish man created a Facebook page for Henio Zytomirski, a seven year old Jewish boy who perished in a Nazi concentration camp. The page is updated regularly with brief posts from the child's point of view, as if he is reliving the horrific experience:

"Winter has arrived. Every Jew must wear the Star of David with his last name. A lot has changed. German troops walk the streets. Mama says that I shouldn't be frightened, and always that everything is just fine. Always?"

I've written in the past about my unease with victim identification methods of education and advocacy. (The tactic has been widely discredited as a pedagogical tool.) While I recognize the need for creative approaches to grabbing and holding people's attention on such a depressing subject, putting words into the mouths of child ghosts seems rather tasteless.

We have substantial testimony from genocide survivors -- who speak from actual rather than imagined experience -- and we honor those rendered voiceless when we act to protect those subjected to genocide and mass violence, and hopefully one day to prevent its occurrence all together.

Tactics like Henio's Facebook page come off as gimmicky. It might not do any particular harm, in the end of the day, but that does not mean that it's appropriate, especially when far more tactful and respectful tools are at our disposal.

[For more on the internet and Holocaust education, see Martha's recent post.]