rewrite this and remove the quotes - The one message I want to convey today is that you will have missed the most frightening aspect of it all, if you do not appreciate that it happened in one of the most educated, most progressive, most cultured countrie

The primary message I want to express today is that the most alarming aspect of the Holocaust is often overlooked: it took place in one of the most educated, progressive, and cultured nations in the world. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Germany was at the forefront of art, science, and intellectual pursuits. Berlin was a vibrant hub for theater, where influential figures like producer Max Reinhardt fostered the talents of playwrights and composers such as Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. The city featured three opera houses, while the country boasted around eighty. Every mid-sized city had its own orchestra. Renowned German poets and writers included Hermann Hesse, Stefan George, Leonhard Frank, Franz Kafka, and Thomas Mann, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929. In architecture, Germany was pioneering, with figures like Gropius and the Bauhaus school leading the way. It was home to painters like Paul Klee and Oskar Schlemmer, and composers such as Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, and Paul Hindemith, alongside famous conductors like Otto Klemperer, Bruno Walter, Erich Kleiber, and Wilhelm Furtwängler. In the realm of science, Germany was at the pinnacle of achievement. The purpose of these annual Holocaust remembrances, alongside the adjacent Holocaust museum, is not only to honor the memory of the six million Jews and three to four million others who suffered in this 20th-century tragedy, but also to keep their memory alive in hopes of preventing such atrocities from occurring again. This can only be accomplished by recognizing and passing on to future generations the existence of absolute, uncompromising standards of human conduct. Traditionally, humanity has drawn from religion to define these standards, with Western civilization largely influenced by Jewish teachings. These principles will not endure without conscious efforts to maintain them, and it is to that commitment that we dedicate ourselves today. They can be found in the Ten Commandments and in the timeless inquiry posed by Micah: what is required of us is to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.