HOLOCAUST CONTINUES TO IMPACT JEWS, UNDERSTANDING OF CULTURE

The Holocaust continues to impact the lives of Jews today and still plays a part in understanding Jewish culture, a St. Louis rabbi said Tuesday.

In a lecture on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University as part of a nationwide observance of the Holocaust, "Days of Remembrance," Rabbi Jeffrey Cohen said Jews still struggle to comprehend the tragedy.

"How does a group of people such as the Germans do such a horrendous thing?" Cohen said. He blamed Nazi propaganda which eventually lured the masses into believing Jews were "rats, vermin. And what do you do with vermin? You exterminate them," he said.

Cohen is the director and academic dean for the Institute of Pastoral Education at St. Louis University. He said that before the Nazi Holocaust 50 years ago, the word Holocaust was not part of modern language.

Though it happened generations ago, Cohen said it still effects the everyday lives of Jews. He said a fear that constitutional rights can be stripped away at any moment is common.

Many of the facts of the Holocaust are so reprehensible they have a numbing effect on those who study the tragedy, Cohen said. When the Holocaust finally ended, media reports put the death toll at 12 million, including six million Jews.

The other six million people were deemed social misfits by the Nazis: homosexuals, gypsies and the mentally handicapped. All became the target of extermination by Adolph Hitler's Nazi army.

"The enormity of it was numbing," Cohen said. "I don't think we will ever be able to comprehend that."

He said one of the reasons people build memorials commemorating the Holocaust is because people, especially Jews, find it difficult to come to terms with the horror of it.

"It's easier to put it in bricks and mortar than to examine your inner self," he said.

Cohen also dismissed claims by neo-Nazi groups that the Holocaust did not happen. He said such groups are able to engage supporters because they offer structure, definite leadership and little mental strain characteristics that appeal to people searching for an identity. Such groups often are associated with white supremacist organizations.

The neo-Nazi groups are small but vocal and are well-funded. But Cohen said he'd rather they be allowed to state their opinions publicly, where they are more easily challenged, than in underground propaganda.

The Days of Remembrance will be recognized on campus today during a poetry and prayer observance presented by campus ministers, faculty, staff and students. The event begins at 11:45 a.m. in the University Center.

At a Days of Remembrance ceremony in Jefferson City Tuesday, lawmakers told of the importance of making sure the Holocaust is not forgotten.

Retelling the horrors of the Holocaust is especially important because "we are again seeing historical prejudices and class hatred rearing their ugly head," Attorney General William Webster said.

"It can happen again," Webster warned, "and it can happen here."

Ceremonies coincide with the anniversary of the three-week Warsaw ghetto uprising that began April 19, 1943. During the uprising, hundreds of Jews fought the Nazi plan to eradicate the last 75,000 residents of the walled enclave.

Nazi terror against Polish Jews spread to other groups, until Adolf Hitler and his followers "nearly erased mankind from the face of the earth," Gov. John Ashcroft said.

The governor said nations must unite to make sure another Holocaust doesn't happen. Children should be taught about the Nazi genocide, because the Holocaust is but a distant memory for many adults, he said.

"Time is a very relative matter," Ashcroft said. "Fifty years is not much time at all."

Some information for this story was provided by the Associated Press.