“Arbeit Macht Frei”, a Germanic phrase which translated to English means “Work will set you free”. This mendacious phrase was hung upon the atrocity-ridden concentration camp of Auschwitz. The Jewish people already being literally ripped from their homes were forced into labor camps not knowing that their fate had been unjustly sealed, even before the war began. From 1933 to 1945, six million Jewish people were erased from the face of this earth for the sake of being scapegoats. Somebody to blame, somebody to be the burden bearers of an entire nation, to give one man and his idea the power that he needed to commit such horrific acts of violence and crimes against humanity. Whole generations were lost, not because of disease or famine, but because of a sick and twisted ideology that a specific group of humans were less than the ground they walk on. Those six million people are now no more than a photo, a memory, a dream, maybe even a name on a memorial wall. The name of this event is as well-known as the people who began and participated in this systematic annihilation of a race, it is called The Holocaust.

The name in itself has a deeper meaning beyond the nine letters given to the event. The name represents how much this has truly affected the world over the past sixty years. Some would say that The Holocaust was just genocide, which has happened many times through the course of written and televised history. The name shows how significant it was after World War II and how significant it still is today by simply having a specific name rather than merely being called the genocide of the Jewish people. It also represents how one word can evoke more emotions, memories, and recollections than any event in history. Virtually everyone in the world was affected by The Holocaust by 1945. That is a powerful sentiment in itself, showing not only how those six million people have affected the world, but how the countless families that were torn apart and the numerous books written that have commented on and reviewed the event all have a seemingly fragmented conscience. Yet when brought together by the two most powerful entities, love and speech, this word becomes a being in its own right, almost living and breathing. This transcendence of history ultimately shows the bravery of people and their willingness to move on no matter how tumultuous and turbulent the environment is, no matter what their plight in life is, and no matter how bleak the light of freedom and racial acceptance looks, we still look forward to the future with new hope and vitality.

If history truly repeats itself, no matter how vile and cruel in nature it might be, it is imperative that we as human beings take the past and apply it to the future. The Holocaust is a very dark point in world history indeed, but even in this we can still learn many ideas and lessons that we can apply to our everyday lives. The most crucial point I am trying to stress is to remember those who can no longer tell their story. The moment that we as people begin to forget about those six million, even just one, we are allowing those to win who want this time to be forgotten. We would be sending a message that slowly but surely even the most ludicrous of crimes could and would eventually become expunged from our thoughts. Rather than just informing about The Holocaust and how horrible it was, people should be asked to remember those countless lives that were lost simply for being a target for hate and paranoia. Show the whole world how a collective conscience of every book, survivor, memorial, and essay can be brought together as a symbol for hope, a permanent imprint on every psyche who has ever mired in The Holocaust. In that statement there is one prevalent truth that echoes: if those without voices have a story to tell, who are we not to convey their message to the world?

What we as young people can do is simple: spread awareness and promote racial acceptance and tolerance. If young people are truly the future, then it is up to us now to display that we having a deep understanding of history and that we are taking the necessary steps to stop the endless process of violent history repeating itself. Let future presidents and prime ministers be educated on how these atrocities can affect the world as a whole, years after they have taken place. So, when they are finally elected to lead, those two critical ideas will be somewhere on their various agendas. We should provide awareness in hopes that the information will not be forgotten, but passed on both orally and written. We should promote racial acceptance and tolerance because in that, the world would be able to achieve more than ever imagined and break down barriers erected by those not understanding or those possessing ideals considered ignorant. We should not condemn those who think negatively of others, but expose how their preconceived notions rely on false pretenses and inexperience. If people are exposed to a more diverse setting such as studying abroad or visiting another country, these acts would diffuse an abundant amount of tension and prejudice among the world's different cultures, races, creeds, and religions.

Could I have been one of the six million who became part of the collective Holocaust conscience? Could I have watched as my family was ripped apart at the seams for reasons unknown to me? Could I have survived at Auschwitz, being denied basic privileges and human rights? These are all questions that we have all asked ourselves at one time or another. Most of us more than likely said “no” without giving much thought to those who actually lived this nightmare day in and day out. Even with their fate being sealed, these people had the courage to rebel, escape, or die trying to do so. This shows how we are the same, all human beings. We are all resilient, have the will to survive, and can overcome obstacles larger than ourselves. What was found in Auschwitz among many other concentration and death camps scattered around Europe is as shocking and mortifying in modern times as it was sixty years ago. The world is still reeling from the single most lurid act humanity has ever witnessed, and will never fully recover from it. Remember the photo, the memory, the diary, the letter, the six million people wiped out for a single cause. Remember just by reading this you are contributing to the collective conscience. If you don't remember anything else in life, remember The Holocaust.