How do you commemorate an event like the Holocaust? What could possibly be created to memorialize the mass genocide of six million people in a manner that retains their individuality and yet also portrays the massive hole in the weave of life from these people’s deaths? What medium should be used? What feelings should the memorial elicit? How do you account for the variability of observers’ responses and feelings based on their background and relation to the Holocaust? These questions and a plethora of others must be contemplated to even attempt to create some sort of commemoration of the Holocaust.

One of the most important aspects of the Holocaust is that it touched every age group. No one was spared in this genocide due to their youth or old age. Therefore, I felt it was important when trying to import the significance of the Holocaust to choose a medium readily accessible and understandable to all age groups. One of the easiest to access mediums in the world today is the World Wide Web. The Internet has become a ubiquitous presence worldwide, and is used by people of all ages.

The internet’s appeal as a medium for commemoration also stems from its “world wide” availability. The Holocaust was not a concentrated event that affected a small amount of people. This was a global event and should be commemorated in a global manner. There were six million people killed in the Holocaust. These were mothers, wives, brothers, uncles, cousins, sisters, fathers, husbands, friends, acquaintances, and moreover human beings. The Holocaust could also be pictured as a web. At the core are those who were put in ghettos, death camps, taken on death marches, etc., with the ultimate goal of being “extinguished”. Connected to these people are their families and friends, and connected from the second degree families and friends are those people’s circle of acquaintances. Also connected to the Holocaust are the many men and women who fought against Hitler in World War II, and those who fought for Hitler and aided in the “final solution.” There are not many people in the world who can claim they have not in some way been affected by the Holocaust when looking at the number of people who were connected at the core.

The World Wide Web seems to mirror the global relationship the Holocaust created. It reaches across oceans, religious beliefs, and cultures to connect people of all ages. It also has an anonymity which was also present in the Holocaust. Victims of the Holocaust lost their identities, known only as a number to soldiers and as subhuman. Yet as perfect as the Internet seems as a medium for importing the significance of the Holocaust, it is also interesting to note that this medium was not even invented until forty years after the Holocaust occurred. What implication, if any, does this have? Perhaps the time distance was necessary to invent a medium that would convey the true significance of the Holocaust. The Internet has the capability to show video, pictures, text, and audio, a combination of many other media forms and can store as much information and data as needed online. It can be accessed by anyone anywhere without the constraint of having to travel or pay money to get information. Yet, even with as much as the Internet offers, can it truly educe the emotions coupled with the loss of life and the depravity of the human spirit the Holocaust created? Can an image in front of you compare to seeing a death camp or the shoes of countless gas chamber victims firsthand?

I don’t believe anything can take the place of witnessing and experiencing firsthand places and people connected to the Holocaust. However, the Internet offers a good second place. Soon, even Holocaust survivors will be dead, and all that will be left are oral histories and video clips of their experiences, with second hand discussions by sons and daughters who were told the story of their parents’ lives during the late thirties and early forties. Since the final solution was to eliminate all of the Jews to begin with, clean-up efforts were made in order to get rid of the evidence. Concentration camps were destroyed, documents were destroyed, and Hitler committed suicide, leaving scare tangible evidence. Much of this evidence is in a format that can be presented on the web with as much meaning as it would have in a book or in a video.

Perhaps the time distance was also necessary to garner enough of an understanding to even attempt to do justice to importing the significance of the Holocaust to a large population. A great deal of time is spent teaching children about the Holocaust in school, with classes devoted fully to its study sixty years after the event itself. It holds us in awe because it gives us a glimpse into the depths of human depravity. To us, it is inconceivable that we would ever do something like this to our fellow human beings. How did something like the Holocaust happen? What caused it? Can it happen again? We needed to be able to answer these questions so that we would be able to feel some control over the event and let go of the fear that the unknown holds. The event was looked at through an economic lens, a communications lens, a psychological lens, and a religious lens, and there was no clear cut answer. It was a combination of the economic situation, a charismatic leader, extensive propaganda, a group of people hated for thousands of years to use as a scapegoat, a cloud between moral and technical responsibility to name a few causes.

The Internet yet again is a versatile medium to deal with confounding and extensive information. A search for the causes of the Holocaust will bring up a variety of explanations. Due to the globalization of the Internet, one can garner viewpoints not only from an American standpoint, but international perspectives as well. By gaining a worldly viewpoint on the Holocaust, any biases present can be seen for what they are and those learning about the Holocaust can recognize the complexity of the issue and truly reflect on it. As extensive as the information about the Holocaust may be, the Internet will always have enough space to maintain it all and provide anyone wanting to learn more about the Holocaust with a place to do so.

Acknowledging the limitations of the Internet to provide a perfect medium to convey the significance of the Holocaust, I hope you still gain a lot from this website. The Internet still has much to offer as a way to memorialize and commemorate events with this much significance and I have attempted to utilize its capabilities to the fullest. While pictures may not elicit the same level of emotion that actually being in a concentration camp and walking around a place where thousands of people were murdered can, I have found that they still do a good job. I have created this site as a Holocaust resource, with links to a variety of topics relating to the Holocaust, photographs from my travels in Poland while on the March of Remembrance and Hope, and my own personal thoughts and feelings about my experience.

Please use this site to further your knowledge of the Holocaust. Don’t assume that it can’t happen again, or that you would never have acted as those who worked in Nazi Germany did. We as human beings must take responsibility for what happened, for it is the displacement of responsibility and the bureaucracy of the Nazi government that aided in normal human beings like you and I acting in such an inhumane manner. Psychology tells us that the most mentally balanced humans are quite capable of such atrocities. Real life examples tell us that genocides are still occurring. It very much can and is happening again. So, when you look at this site, keep in mind that the horrors are not over. If you would like to find out more about other past and recent genocides as well as other relevant information, please take a look at the additional resources page.