Today approximately 300 students in our school heard a Holocaust survivor’s personal testimony of her life before, during, and since the Holocaust and her imprisonment in and liberation from Bergen-Belsen. Knowing how few Holocaust survivors remain today, I anticipated this opportunity for several weeks not knowing that these would be the most powerful 75 minutes I have ever witnessed as an educator or as a human being. This woman connected each of us to an unimaginable time that is difficult to fathom but is necessary to understand and to remember lest we are condemned to repeat it. Her message was simple: “Don’t hate.” Her legacy was evident: Use the remainder of your life to teach tolerance. Later in the day, a student asked me if I had enjoyed the guest speaker as much as he had. Like any educator, I turned the tables and asked him a question: “Yes, I did, but what did you learn today that you can take with you the rest of your life?” His response was as eloquent and simple as that of the speaker herself: “Don’t be a hater.” Moments like these remind me of why I became an educator. Sometimes being stuck in the middle is where I most want to be.
