[Editor’s Note: The full version of this essay is available at Fathom Journal]
“After the Holocaust, many bought into the idea that the best way to prevent the reoccurrence of similar horrors was through education. If the world knows what happened, the thinking went, it’ll never allow such atrocities to repeat. But after the 10/7 Massacre in Israel, we’re seeing a much darker reality about education’s role in shaping society’s attitudes toward atrocities.
Hamas gleefully livestreamed to the world its orgy of violence and cruelty against some 1,400 Israelis – including women, children, the elderly, the disabled, and even Holocaust survivors. Nearly 79 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, we’re once again seeing innocent Jews burned alive by believers of a genocidal ideology. And whereas many Germans at least had the sense to feign ignorance of the death camps next door, academics are now openly declaring atrocities against Jews as ‘exhilarating.’
How did we get to this point?
…”