The fear of many Jews is not that the Holocaust will be forgotten but that the magnitude of atrocities committed against them will slowly be blended into history and become just another thread in the fabric of the past. They don't worry about the world growing forgetful. The worry is the world will grow numb.
Given the news out of Germany, however, numbness will not be setting in any time soon.
In a move that caught many by surprise, Germany has agreed to release a vast collection of files concerning the 17 million souls who were killed and brutalized by the Nazi political and military machine during World War II. The collection of files, located in the town of Bad Arolsen, runs 15 miles in length and contains 50 million documents. Historians believe the files will detail the day-to-day evils that Nazi soldiers, guards and others visited on concentration camp prisoners. The files promise to take a statistic (6 million Jewish dead) and turn each case into a personal tragedy. Pressure now mounts on Italy to release similar files.
Eleven nations will meet in May to work out the logistics.
Needless to say, we applaud the move. As a newspaper, we are adamant about openness and access to information. Knowledge is vital for proper decisions to be made. But more than that, we also feel that the inhumane policies of callous regimes should never be minimized. What was atrocious in 1946 must remain atrocious in 2006. Scoundrels should never be let off the hook — whether they call Germany and Italy home, or Thailand, Darfur and Somalia.
The great French theologian Teilhard de Chardin once said that religious faith has need of all the truth. We take that a step further. Faith in the future — a worthwhile future — also has need of all the truth.
We urge those involved with the records to not only sift them for perpetrators and criminals who — though now dead — must be exposed for their crimes, but we also hope they will use the files to humanize the immense suffering that was visited on European families during what always will be a dark night for the soul of humanity.