Tools for the Living to Move Forward
From the Desk of Emily S. Hager, Director of Programming & Education
As I reflect on the past three months of my employment at the Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center, I am reminded of quote by Robert F. Kennedy: "Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live."
The destruction and aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust can be described as ‘tragedy.’ Truthfully, that word only touches the tip of the iceberg, but it is an acceptable starting point to describe all that happened. One would think that those who witnessed the horrors firsthand would be incapable of moving forward. It is in fact quite the opposite.
When I started working for TJMHC, I had never met a Holocaust survivor (at least to my knowledge). Frankly, I was anxious to meet them. How would they receive a young woman coming into their space as a historian? Surely, I was an outsider looking in. Imagine my surprise, and delight, to meet a survivor at the door and have him kiss me on the cheek like an old friend. The laughter that erupted from my body when I was jokingly offered to go out on a dinner date with another. Lastly, a survivor embraced me when I explained who my own family is, and shared how her daughters would play with my mother as children.
I am blessed and honored to be involved with the Southern Arizona Holocaust survivors. They are inspiring to the school children they talk to on tours as they show an insurmountable amount of strength and courage when discussing their experiences in concentration camps, ghettos, cattle cars, and the journeys they took to come to America. They do not let tragedy define who they are. They use it as a tool to teach others that what they experienced should never happen again.
My family unfortunately lost its matriarch recently, my grandmother, Sharon Wittenberg, and I look to these local survivors as an inspiration to find strength and to try to understand what to do. My grandmother was a force of nature, a woman I admired deeply. She was the source of my Jewish heritage, so when I think of her, I also think about the way the survivors treated me at that very first meeting: kissing my cheek, hugging, and wickedly funny jokes. She was the exact same way. When I tell people that my grandmother owned a handful of knitting stores called Purls, more and more people tell me they went there to get their own knitting and/or crochet supplies and remember fondly the way she greeted them at the entry. Everyone was an old friend to Sharon, even if it was the first time meeting them.
The survivors too are working through grief, as the community lost a survivor and artist Chris Tanz in early October of this year. It is more important than ever to preserve the words and oral testimonies that a Holocaust survivor gives us. We bear witness to their pain and history when we listen to their testimony. When TJMHC worked with the University of Arizona Center for Digital Humanities to create 3D videos, part of the goal was to have the survivors here – digitally-- even if they are no longer on this earth.
It is difficult to face an emotional void, or tragedy, with any semblance of moxie. People find comfort in scripture, family, friends, hobbies, and more. There is no wrong way to grieve, but I believe that if you allow tragedy to consume you and guide your life, then you have let the tragedy “win.” Whether it be a horrifying regime, dark memories, or a family death and the depression that can sink in afterwards, allowing whatever “it” is to overtake you does not allow for any wisdom to blossom. I look to the Holocaust survivors I have met and hope to have even just a fraction of the chutzpah and wisdom they have, to guide me in these upcoming months and years to come.