When my son asked, "Mom, what's the Holocaust?" I hoped to find a way for him to answer his own question.
by Dr. Judith Boice
My son looked up from a book, puzzled, and asked, "Mom, what's the Holocaust?" I explained that the Holocaust was the extermination of six million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, mentally ill and physically disabled people, ordered by Adolph Hitler and carried out by the Nazis. I thought of all of the people I have know who were effected by the Holocaust - those who lived though it, those who narrowly escaped it and those who escaped in time. I wondered how to compress all of these rich, soul-filled lives into something my son could understand. Over the next few months we watched films. Finally, after "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," my son was in tears. "No more Holocaust movies!" he said. I knew "Holocaust" was more than a word in a book; it had visceral meaning for him. Now, I thought, you have answered your own question.
