2023 30thAnniversaryCommemorativeBook SINGLEPAGES-small - Flipbook - Page 87
FORGING A
SECURE PATH
The United States
Holocaust Memorial
Museum is a
sanctuary for the
human race. Absent natural
disaster, conscience is the critical
determinant in the survival of a
society. This Museum is a domicile
for the imagery describing events
preceding or during the genocide
that is the Holocaust. The predicate
for genocide is the desecration of
the sacrosanct essence of life itself.
Part of the purpose for this Museum’s
existence is remembrance. Another
equally cogent reason for this
Museum’s existence is informative.
We expect each and every visitor to
this institution to emerge from this
experience a warrior in the battle
against injustice, intolerance, and
hatred. A warrior fiercely opposed
to denigration of the human spirit,
humiliation, and tyranny. A warrior
who stands opposed to genocide.
What you do matters, and when
you do not confront oppression,
oppression that is so abhorrent, so
despicable, so destructive to any civil
society, then you become bystanders,
and then enablers, abettors, and finally
collaborators in genocide. A society,
or a segment of society, that chooses
to ignore the Holocaust by refusing
to acknowledge, comprehend, and
implement its lessons is a society that
is ultimately doomed.
The walls of this Museum bear
witness to the desecration of the
human spirit by a society run
amok. From within the relentlessly
smoldering ashes of the Holocaust;
from within those flames eternally
wending their way toward the
heavens; from within the terror,
the mayhem, the carnage; from this
pyre of anguish we shall endeavor to
forge a secure path that will seek to
preserve the sanctity of life for the
souls of every race, every ethnicity,
and every religion. We envision
a better day in a better world.
Although the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum evokes our most
painful memories, it also serves as
our most vital, vibrant, living, and
enduring opportunity to preserve,
protect, and revere the sanctity of
life so precious, so cherished, and so
essential for each human being.”
SAFEGUARDING TRUTH FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS l 85