An Indianapolis couple presenting a program on the Holocaust say their free local talk Tuesday indirectly says as much about the future as it does about the past.
Ed and Esther Davidson will speak on the topic “Never Again: Two Perspectives of the Holocaust” at 6:30 p.m. in the Red Room of the Bartholomew County Public Library. They say that national news accounts in the past several years of anti-Semitism, racism and related occurrences could portend a worrisome future for Jews and other minorities.
They also say they believe that those factors could allow another authoritarian, Adolf Hitler-style figure to rise to power. He was a dictator and the leader of the Nazi Party in Germany who was responsible for the genocide of more than five million Jews and others during the Holocaust of World War II.
Esther Davidson, born in Poland in 1941 two years after Germany’s occupation, will speak of the post-war years of 1945 to 1949 in a displaced persons camp in Germany awaiting a journey to the United States by age 8. All her aunts and uncles on her mother’s side of the family were killed in concentration camps.
Same for all her dozens of first cousins.
“I always have maintained that a Hitler-type, sick personality probably could rise faster and higher in today’s society — and I don’t care what country you’re talking about — than Adolf Hitler ever dreamed because of the speed of today’s television and (overall) news,” Esther Davidson said.
“This kind of savagery is not unique to the Germans,” Ed Davidson said, referring to a string of ethnic and faith-related killings in the modern world. “It’s happening today.”
Both understand that there are Holocaust deniers. And they address such in their hour-long talk slated to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday.
“If we do not share our history, we are doomed to repeat it,” Esther Davidson said.
She added that, ordinarily, she hates the idea of public speaking because she battles fear.
“A day or two before, I don’t sleep,” she said. “I can’t eat. My stomach is in knots. I feel like I can’t breathe. But with something as important as this, it has to be done.
“But, I didn’t major in public speaking. And doing these presentations and bringing up old, painful memories is not pleasant. In fact, it’s gut-wrenching.”
The Davidsons have seen significant ignorance of elements such as the Holocaust and related topics during their presentations in the past few years. One personal example a number of years ago involved a small-town Hoosier assistant principal who never had heard of the Nuremberg Trials, a series of post World War II tribunals. The trials were noteworthy for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, judicial, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany who planned, carried out, or otherwise participated in the Holocaust and other war crimes.
Ed Davidson’s father, a officer, was a translator during the Nuremberg Trials. The son’s portion of the presentation will include an overview of the Nazi concentration camps, and a visual tour of the infamous Dachau Concentration Camp.
“Having students read it out of a book is one thing,” Ed Davidson said. “But when they can hear it from people with first and secondhand knowledge of the events, that’s quite another matter.”
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Who: Indianapolis residents Ed and Esther Davidson
What: The presentation "Never Again: Two Perspectives of the Holocaust" about the Holocaust and events surrounding it. A question-and-answer session will follow
When: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Red Room of the Bartholomew County Public Library, 536 Fifth St. in downtown Columbus
Admission: Free
Information: 812-379-1266 or mybcpl.org
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