"The parallels between the Germany of the 1930s and the United States of America today are frightening." A Holocaust teacher’s warning: Will ‘good Americans’ speak up this time? | PennLive letters

Photo Credit: The Nazi concentration camp at Dachau was liberated by American soldiers of the 45th Infantry Division, Seventh Army, on April 30, 1945. Prisoners who were able to stand and to comprehend that the hour of deliverance had come cheered the liberators just days before the final collapse of the Third Reich.

Published: Mar. 23, 2026

As a former Social Studies teacher who taught a 30-day unit on the Holocaust, I had the good fortune to have had several Holocaust survivors and numerous college professors speak to my classes over the years.

As we discussed how Germany, a country with a constitution, an elected government, and a system of law was taken over by an ego-maniac (Hitler, and the Nazis), the lyrics of the song from the musical South Pacific, a”You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught," were offered as one of the explanations.

When asked by the students if there weren’t any “good Germans” who stood up to the Nazis, the poem “First They Came” by Pastor Martin Niemöller was introduced.

The parallels between the Germany of the 1930s and the United States of America today are frightening.

We have a government today that violates the Constitution, refuses to obey the decisions of the courts, and kills American citizens... READ MORE   https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2026/03/a-holocaust-teachers-warning-will-good-americans-speak-up-this-time-pennlive-letters.html?gift=6cf2e016-c23b-421b-b8fd-e1b2d895a4ba 

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

Two photographs nearly identical, as if captured on the same day. One in black and white, the other in color. Yet between them stretches seventy-seven years. The first taken after the Nakba of 1948. The second after the Nakba of 2023..

Dr. Ezzideen

@ezzingaza

 

Two photographs nearly identical, as if captured on the same day. One in black and white, the other in color. Yet between them stretches seventy-seven years.

 

The first taken after the Nakba of 1948. The second after the Nakba of 2023.

 

Two moments divided by time yet bound by the same wound, the same sky, the same unyielding hope. A people exiled twice, grieving twice, still carrying within them the unwavering belief that survival begins with knowledge.

 

Even when homes vanish and cities are reduced to dust, the mind endures as a nation that cannot be occupied. So they learn under tents, under fire, beneath the relentless shadow of history, because they know that survival begins with the word, with the book, with the child who insists on imagining a world that refuses to kill its own future.

 

#WoundedGaza 

 

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES & QUOTES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]  

‘The loss of education is the loss of the future itself’: Gaza’s children and teachers on two years without school With 97% of schools destroyed or damaged, 600,000 children have just begun their third year out of formal education. Three students and a teacher share their stories – and their hopes

‘I miss feeling normal’

Sarah al-Sharif, nine, Gaza City- Sarah's home and school were destroyed in the war

"I was seven when the war began. That morning on 7 October, I was sitting in my classroom, learning maths. I remember holding my pencil tightly when the first explosion shook the school. My heart felt like it stopped.

Soon after, my father came to take me home. I never saw that classroom again. My school is gone for ever. The Israeli army surrounded it, attacked the people sheltering inside and destroyed it completely. My home was also bombed – all these places are nothing but ashes now."

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/oct/19/education-gaza-children-teachers-two-years-without-school

Thaslima Begum

Sun 19 Oct 2025 

‘We don’t want pity, we want action’

Juwayriya Adwan, 12, al-Mawasi, Khan Younis

It has been two years since I was last inside a real classroom. Two years since I heard the morning bell at Khawla Bint al-Azwar school, sat at my desk and raised my hand during my favourite class. Sometimes I still vividly remember the sounds and smells: chalk dust, pencil shavings, laughter echoing down the halls. But my school no longer exists; it was bombed by the Israelis soon after the war began. My books were burned, and some of my friends killed.

I was in fifth grade on 7 October: the last day I went to school. That morning, air raid sirens screamed through the corridors. Some children cried, others held hands tightly. Our teacher tried to calm us, but even her voice trembled. I remember wishing for a normal day; lessons, recess, a poem recital. Instead, that day became the last page of my old life.

Now I live with my parents, two brothers and sister in a crowded shelter in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis. The tent walls flap in the wind, keeping neither cold nor heat away. We queue for water and food. Electricity is a dream and privacy doesn’t exist. Hope feels fragile.

At night, I look up at the stars through the holes of my tent and wonder if my friends see the same sky. Some message me when they can, saying they miss school and have kept their old notebooks; like treasures from a lost world. I feel guilty because I’ve lost all of mine.

I once dreamed of becoming a teacher to help Gaza’s children learn, even when life was hard. Now I dream of being a journalist – to write, to speak and to show the world what it means to be a child in Gaza. I want to tell our stories of fear and hunger, but also courage. Because even here, amid death and ruins, our voices refuse to be silent. 

When there’s some ... READ MORE   https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/oct/19/education-gaza-children-teachers-two-years-without-school

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD QUOTES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]    

"UNRWA has food, medicines + other basic supplies ready to go to Gaza. We have enough to provide food for the entire population for the coming three months. Our teams in Gaza are crucial for the implementation of this agreement including to provide basic services like healthcare + education. There are over 660,000 children who are eagerly waiting to go back to school. UNRWA teachers stand ready to help them fulfill that. I call on all member states to support UNRWA to do its work to assist people in need in the coming critical period." Philippe Lazzarini

 UNRWA reposted

Philippe Lazzarini

@UNLazzarini

The agreement to finally secure a ceasefire in #Gaza & release the hostages is a huge relief. 

 

It will bring respite to people who survived the worst bombardment, displacement, loss and grief for two long years. 

 

After their excruciating ordeal, hostages & Palestinian detainees will finally join their families. 

 

@UNRWA  has food, medicines + other basic supplies ready to go to Gaza. 

 

We have enough to provide food for the entire population for the coming three months. 

 

Our teams in #Gaza are crucial for the implementation of this agreement including to provide basic services like healthcare + education. 

 

There are over 660,000 children who are eagerly waiting to go back to school. 

 

UNRWA teachers stand ready to help them fulfill that. 

 

I call on all member states to support UNRWA to do its work to assist people in need in the coming critical period.  

 

#ceasefiregaza

UNRWA

@UNRWA

 

For two years too long, humanitarian workers have been killed in #Gaza. 

 

UNRWA mourns 562 aid workers killed in #Gaza since 7 October 2023, among them 370 from UNRWA. 

 

They were killed while at home with their families. 

 

They were killed while on duty. 

 

They were civilians and should have been protected according to the laws of war. 

 

 #CeasefireNow

 

UNRWA

@UNRWA

 

Children belong in school, not in the rubble. 

 

In #Gaza, around 90% of UNRWA schools were hit or damaged, many while sheltering displaced families. 

 

Nearly 660,000 children are forced out of school for the third year in a row. Half of them used to go to UNRWA schools. 

 

 #CeasefireNow

 

UNRWA

@UNRWA

 

"It would take UNRWA just about 3 hours to get trucks to the borders and then get much needed supplies directly to desperate people in #Gaza” our Juliette Touma tells NPR https://x.com/i/status/1975926687805166015

 

For over 7 months now, the Israeli Authorities have blocked UNRWA from bringing any supplies in. 

 

Our services in Gaza have meanwhile continued thanks to 12,000 UNRWA workers who have not stopped for a day since the war began two years ago. 

 

The siege must be lifted, and the crossings must open.  

 

#CeasefireNow

 

https://bsky.app/profile/unrwa.org 

https://www.unrwa.org/ 

NOT A TARGET: Babies are #NotATarget. Children are #NotATarget. Civilians are #NotATarget. Hospitals are #NotATarget. Health care workers are #NotATarget. Schools are #NotATarget. Humanitarians are #NotATarget.... & Poets are #NotATarget. Journalists are #NotATarget. Teachers are #NotATarget.

United Nations Geneva

@UNGeneva

Babies are #NotATarget. 

Children are #NotATarget. 

Civilians are #NotATarget. 

Hospitals are #NotATarget. 

Health care workers are #NotATarget. 

Schools are #NotATarget. 

Humanitarians are #NotATarget.

 

& 

Poets are #NotATarget.

Journalists are #NotATarget. 

Teachers are #NotATarget.

   

1946, Jerusalem, Palestine: Janette Mikhael with teachers and students of the Girl Scout Leaders at Horsh al-Qubaybeh located west of Jerusalem.

1946, Jerusalem, Palestine: Janette Mikhael with teachers and students of the Girl Scout Leaders at Horsh al-Qubaybeh located west of Jerusalem.  @palsofnations

Girl Scout Promise

On my honor, I will try:
To serve God* and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law.

^{*Members may substitute for the word God
in accordance with their own spiritual beliefs.}

Girl Scout Law

I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong,
and responsible for what I say and do,
and to respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place,
and be a sister to every Girl Scout.   

 https://www.girlscouts.org/en/discover/about-us/what-girl-scouts-do/promise-and-law.html

https://www.wagggs.org/en/about-us/our-history/original-promise-and-law/