VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — While museums and memorials pertaining to the Holocaust exist in the U.S., most states don’t have laws requiring schools to teach about the Holocaust and genocide, according to Axios.com.
As the years go by families are losing loved ones and the world is losing survivors. In Virginia Beach, the son of one says it's a concern for his community.
Some of Rabbi Israel Zoberman's earliest memories come out of displaced persons camps in Austria and Germany.
"Thank God we had food, but everything was rationed it was still difficult," Zobermain said. "We were protected and we received clothing. We didn’t have clothing when we arrived."
Zoberman's mother, who lives in Israel, is now 102. At 17, she escaped with her life and the clothes on her back during a bombing in her hometown in Ukraine. It killed her mother and the Rabbi's grandmother.
Zoberman said his father, who had escaped, as well, was in Warsaw during the invasion of Poland in 1939 and tried to warn his family about what was to come.
"Most of the family did not believe him," he said. "My grandmother Rachel approached a German officer and said to him, 'My son in Warsaw, he’s crazy and he says you’re going to kill us what’s going on?' She spoke perfect German and that German officer was very impressed so he told her, 'Well we’re not hurting you but those who would follow us won’t be as kind.' I can tell you that no one imagined that they would be slaughtered."
Zoberman lost many members of his family tree including aunts, uncles, grandparents and many cousins who were children.
Those who got away had little of their home country left after fleeing.
Zoberman said one of the only pieces passed down from his family in the Holocaust is a white, lace pillowcase that he treasures and will hand down to his daughter one day.
Today, his family is featured in the Holocaust Museum in Richmond, a memorial filled with pictures, clothing and proof of a terrible persecution.
Still, there are many people who deny this sort of tragedy happened. Dr. Annette Finley Croswhite, a history professor at ODU, said she believes that’s due to it not being taught enough in school.
"There’s a decline in social studies classes and history classes or the humanities in general," Dr. Croswhite said. "Those are the very subjects where you are going to get information about how people have been treated in the past."
According to data collected from the National Conference of State Legislatures, there are only about 18 of the 50 states that are required to teach about Holocaust and genocide.
Rabbi Zoberman said it’s left up to newer generations to remember.
"If we forget, we invite this to happen again," he said.
