Luna Kaufman with Jason Tramm at Stokes Lecture. PG photo©
By Paul Goldfinger
July 24, 2012. Ocean Grove, New Jersey: Luna Kaufman was 12 years old when the Nazis stormed into Cracow, Poland, where she and her family lived in 1939. She spent the next four years in a ghetto, followed by three different concentration camps. She and her mother survived, but her father and her sister died in the Holocaust.
After the war Ms. Kaufman and her mother escaped to Israel and then finally to the United States in 1952, where she has devoted her life to educating others about the Holocaust. Her main themes are those of forgiveness and reconciliation. In particular, she has worked to promote good will between Jews and Christians, especially Roman Catholics.
She has had a long association with Seton Hall University, where she had taught. In 2009, they presented her with an honorary doctorate. Ms. Kaufman has written a book about her life (“Luna’s Life”), and in 2011 she went back to Poland to receive a medal from the President of Poland. Now, at the age of 85, she came to Ocean Grove to deliver a Stokes Lecture at the Bishop Janes Tabernacle.
Dr. Jason Tramm moderated the session, where Ms. Kaufman related key events in her life and then took questions from the audience. One event stands out. It took place at a concentration camp where a Nazi officer put a gun to the back of her head. She heard a click — the gun jammed.
When asked how she survived, she said, “I was just lucky.” While in “the camps” she said that people didn’t care about losing all their possessions — “Only life was precious.” As for the lingering pain of what occurred, she said, “We can’t expect to fully repair the damage, but every bit of reconciliation is a building block to a better future.” She also said, “Being bitter is non-productive.”
A great lesson of the Holocaust was dehumanization of entire groups of people, and how destructive that is. Not only to the dehumanized, but to those who ignorantly participate in dehumanization and vulgar denigration of groups.
I saw that movie about the Hitler bunker, “Downfall.” All of the Nazis trapped in that underground bunker had the fleeting idea that they were the best kings of humanity history had ever seen as they heard American bombs exploding above them. When the end came, many committed suicide. In that bunker they shot themselves, poisoned themselves and poisoned their children. It would never have come to that if they had not picked a group of people and accused them of destroying civilization.
The denigration of groups is at the center of the controversy over Kirk Cameron’s appearance in the Auditorium this week. Gay people have been accused of destroying civilization by not only Kirk but many religious leaders in this country. While we are not in any danger of a holocaust here, the violence of those words that dehumanizes an entire group of people can and has been acted upon by individuals and groups against gay people. The lesson of the holocaust that Wisher refers doesn’t seem to have been learned by these religious leaders.
Hobe4030: Please tell us who those “many religious leaders in this country” are who have accused gays of destroying civilization. Please supply the references for your assertion.
Wondering Who: If you are interested in this subject, a good source for data is the Southern Poverty Law Center, which records statements by religious leaders. Here is one of the links: http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/winter/the-hard-liners
The center defines hate not as religious belief, which is excluded from their lists, but by denigration of a group, and factual misrepresentation about the effects of those groups on the rest of society.
Wisher: The burden of proof here is on the guy (Hobe 4030) who made an unsubstantiated statement. If anybody needs to do some research, it is he/she.
Wondering Who: The link I provided contains the substantiation you require.
Wisher: Please don’t play games. If you think that “many religious leaders say that gays are destroying civilization.” then just tell us who they are. I don’t want to read your links. Just tell us their names and where you found those quotes. Thank you
Wondering Who: The list of names is in the link.
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Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger