Editorial: History’s sins offer us lessons

Monday, July 23, 2001 | 9:04 a.m.

It is encouraging that in spite of state government's austere budget, the Nevada Legislature and Gov. Kenny Guinn did reauthorize funding for the Holocaust education program that is taught in the public schools. Edythe Katz Yarchever, who started the program during the 1970s, aptly notes that it is needed so students can learn "about tolerance, respect and understanding other people's customs."

History unfortunately is replete with instances of man doing the unthinkable, committing genocide in the name of some "greater good." The most horrific slaughter of innocent men, women and children in the 20th century occurred in Nazi Germany during Adolf Hitler's drive to create a "master race." It's estimated that 6 million Jews were systematically killed during the Holocaust, which ended only when the Allies defeated Germany in World War II.

While it's not uncommon to hear people in 2001 declare that Hitler's atrocities were unimaginable, it's not as if the seeds don't exist to allow hate to sprout today. For that matter, when atrocities occur, the tendency sometimes is to ignore them and hope they go away. For instance, the 1994 Rwanda genocide didn't receive widespread attention in the United States, but it was terrifying nonetheless. Within the span of about three months, the Hutu majority in Rwanda murdered about 800,000 Tutsis. As the PBS investigative newsmagazine show "Frontline" noted in its 1999 examination of the Rwanda genocide, the Hutu's rate of killing was faster than that of the Nazis.

"Sadly," Yarchever notes, "because there was a Holocaust, kids learn the right things by learning about the wrong things that resulted from evil acts." It is hoped that this program continues to touch students positively so that it fosters the kind of understanding that makes oppression an abhorrent idea.