Great Times at the University of Michigan-Flint » About Me

About Me—Installment Three May 13, 2008

Posted by Jack Kay in : Uncategorized , trackback

13 May 2008, Flint, Michigan:

Blog readers have encouraged me to provide periodic information about myself. An incident that happened today leads me to share some information about my father. Two weeks ago I spoke at a Holocaust Remembrance event sponsored by the Flint Jewish Federation. I talked about my father’s experiences in the Warsaw ghetto, at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, and his passage to the United States. Several people who saw me speak at the event or who watched me on television asked me what impact being the child of a Holocaust survivor has had on my professional life. Since the mid-1980s I have studied the communication strategies of hate groups, particularly those groups who advocate white separatism and anti-semitism. My studies as a professor of communication have led me to understand the tremendous power of language and naming, and the implications of silence.

As to the power of language and naming, I simply present a revised childhood ditty:

Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names will really hurt me.

Think about the unthinkable (genocide, murder, confinement, extermination, gassing) that has occurred as a result of the names assigned to groups of people (barbarians, imbeciles, vermin, chattel, etc.). As to the power of silence, I refer readers to the oft-cited words of Pastor Richard Niemoeller:

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the communists
and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist.

Then the came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

The words of Dante speak to silence as well:

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.

What saddened me after my talk about the heroism of my father who survived the Buchenwald Death Camp was reading emails and postings from people who claim the Holocaust never occurred and is merely a propaganda technique of Zionists.

Shown below is a photo of my father’s Buchenwald Concentration Camp uniform, which until this weekend I had never seen. My father suffered greatly, as did millions of others. We must never forget.