rewritethis - 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 countries in the world. The

The key point I wish to emphasize today is that if you don’t recognize it, you might overlook the most chilling aspect of this history: it unfolded in one of the most educated, progressive, and cultured nations in the world. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Germany was a global leader in various fields of art, science, and intellect. Berlin stood as a vibrant hub of theater, thanks in part to the renowned producer Max Reinhardt, where playwrights and composers like Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill thrived. The city was home to three opera houses, while the country boasted around eighty. Even mid-sized cities had their own orchestras. Esteemed 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 at the forefront, exemplified by figures like Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus school. The nation featured celebrated painters such as Paul Klee and Oskar Schlemmer, and it produced significant musical composers including Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, and Paul Hindemith. Legendary conductors like Otto Klemperer, Bruno Walter, Erich Kleiber, and Wilhelm Furtwängler further enriched its cultural landscape. In science, Germany also held a position of prominence. The purpose of our annual Holocaust remembrances—and of the nearby Holocaust museum—is not only to honor the memory of six million Jews and three to four million others who fell victim to this 20th-century atrocity but also to keep the memory of their tragedy alive so that it never happens again. This can only be achieved by recognizing and instilling in our children the existence of unwavering, uncompromising standards of human behavior. Historically, humanity has drawn such standards from religion, specifically from and through the Jewish tradition in the West. These fundamental standards will not persist without our active commitment to uphold them, and today we reaffirm our dedication to this crucial effort. They are found in the Decalogue, and reflected in the words of Micah: “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”