Professor sees many lessons for today in Holocaust.
Professor Martin J. Pion of Elms College in Chicopee
Martin J. Pion is director of the Institution for Theology and Pastoral Studies and professor of religious studies at the Elms College in Chicopee.
Pion, who holds degrees from St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vt., and a doctorate from Andover Newton Theological School, was asked about his participation in Yom HaShoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day service tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Sinai Temple in Springfield.
What does it mean to you to be invited to represent the “Righteous Among Nations” – those who helped and hid the Jews during the Holocaust – as a candlelighter?
I can represent the righteous not because of things I have done but because I am inspired by all that righteous people have done before me.
I want to try my best to replicate that spirit in my own time and place. To represent the righteous is more of a goal or aspiration than an accomplishment.
What little I have done is nothing compared to the amazing acts of unselfish giving and doing for others that we know of during the Holocaust.
Why do you feel it is important for someone of another faith to participate?
Remembering those who lost their lives in the Shoa is important for the Jewish people.
I personally think it is even more important for non-Jews to carry the memory and honor those who died.
I know that we participate in the responsibility at a cosmic level and we participate in the reconciliation too. Christians especially must participate.
As I look at world events, I see that today there are communities of Jews, Christians, Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus and more that are experiencing discrimination, oppression and death in different places.
Yet each religion believes in the sacredness and dignity of the human person. Maybe by remembering this particular time together, we can all help to avoid religious antagonism and genocide in the future.
How much do you teach your students about the Holocaust, do you bring them to events and to the Hatikvah Holocaust Education Center in Springfield?
I have been teaching about the great religions of the world for 37 years. In that time I have grown in my own understanding of the importance of the Holocaust for modern Judaism.
The materials and methods I have used have evolved but I have never once thought of not teaching about the Holocaust as part of any valid study of the world Jewish community in the 20th and 21st century.
Since Hatikvah opened I have valued it as an important educational resource. I have worked with both Hatikvah directors, Jane Trigere and Rabbi Robert Sternberg and respect the work they did in moving the center forward.
The current permanent exhibit is superb and I bring many of my students to Hatikvah to see the images and artifacts and to interact with the wonderful docents.
There are lessons about evil in the Holocaust and there are lessons about the absolute triumph of the human spirit especially though not exclusively in relationship to the divine.
What is equally compelling is the very visceral nature of doing what is right.
The righteous just know that you cannot do those things to any human being. It is fundamentally, even inexplicably wrong, so they act often with amazing courage.
How much do people really understand about the Holocaust and what happened?
As you might expect, the level of ignorance is fairly high. Holocaust denial has wormed it’s way into contemporary consciousness.
Most know nothing of the complexity of the Nazi program and very few know how much complicity there was. U.S. and British anti-Jewish attitudes are largely unknown.
It is also important to remember that groups other than Jews were targeted though none were in such large numbers and no other group was targeted for complete extinction.
Poles were treated horrifically. Roma/Gypsies were brutalized.
There are so many aspects to the study of the Holocaust that no one book no matter how extensive can really give us every piece of this story.