SARASOTA, Fla. — Genocides have been taking place since the beginning of time, and many believe it’s only through education we can start to battle the hate and the disinformation that fuels these atrocities.
“I was born in 1942 in Harlem, the Netherlands,” said Louise Lawrence-Israëls, who still remembers life under Nazi control. “If my mom had been sent to a camp with her two little children, I wouldn’t be sitting here today."
Afraid for their lives, Louise’s father moved his family into the attic of a stranger who sympathized with the Jewish minority, but her parents tried to provide a sense of normalcy for Louise and her siblings.
“They acted like it was a normal thing to live in an attic. Sometimes to be hungry and to be cold, not to have any toys and have a very small space to walk around in,” she added.
The first time Louise would ever experience life outside of the attic was when she was three years old.
“We were liberated by the Canadian Army, and we had to go outside for the first time. That was a world we didn’t know,” she explained.
WHY GENOCIDES HAPPEN
“I’ve been doing this work largely because my own grandparents were survivors of the Holocaust,” said Naomi Kikoler, director of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide. She has spent two decades studying genocides, why they happen and how to prevent them.
“Genocide is a process. Individuals are not innately hating each other. There is an effort that is undertaken to try to dehumanize communities,” she explained.
Kikoler said these efforts of dehumanizing groups of people start with propaganda that’s spread through the media and nowadays social media.
“Hate speech, demonization, misinformation played a critical role in creating an environment in which genocide could take place,” she said.
THE EFFECTS OF GENOCIDE
Before the Holocaust began in 1933, the Nazis used film, radio, and posters to normalize antisemitism. They spread fear and hate of the Jewish people to the masses. Six million Jews and millions of others were slaughtered. In 1994 in Rwanda, the Hutus constantly aired disinformation via radio about the Tutsis, causing the proliferation of anti-Tutsi sentiment. As many as 800,000 Tutsi men, women, and children were murdered.
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A number of genocides have taken place just over the past century. Currently, there’s one in Burma where thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been killed.
“We could see a lot of misinformation and disinformation about Rohingya. Rohingyas being outsiders,” said Wai Wai Nu, who survived the Rohingya genocide.
Nu said a disinformation campaign by political and religious leaders has swayed public opinion about the ethnic minority group.
“Like they are dirty. They are ugly. They are a threat to national security,” she explained.
Nu said her entire family spent seven years in prison just because her father was a local human rights activist. But, still, she said she feels lucky because she’s still alive.
“People were killed and raped, and people had to leave behind everything and flee,” she said.
HOW TO CHANGE THINGS
Scholars who study genocides say the most powerful weapon against disinformation campaigns is education. That’s why every Monday night Rabbi Mendy Dubrowski teaches a course about Judaism at the Chabad Chai Synagogue in South Tampa and everyone’s invited.
“All citizens owe it to themselves and their families to get educated, and sometimes that means taking time out of our busy schedules to really learn and better understand each other’s cultures because through education comes appreciation and respect.”
MORE RESOURCES
if you’d like to learn more about the Holocaust and other genocides that have taken place, here are some links.
