Lecture from John Dobai

I am a student at Newcastle University, and I attended a public lecture here yesterday from John Dobai, a holocaust survivor.
He was born in Budapest and lost family members in the gas chambers, and has had many horrifying experiences, including a very narrow escape from being sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. He spoke of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish man who saved many lives, and personally saved John's and his parents lives by acquiring for them a visa, giving them protection under the Swedish government, and a safe house to live in.

I found his lecture extremely powerful and emotional, and am very honored to have heard him speak. He is a truly inspirational man, and notably optimistic about human nature. I found his comment on German people today inspiring: he said he does not have any hard feelings towards them, despite the fact that members of his family were killed by their ancestors. In my opinion he is right in saying that people cannot be blamed for atrocities that happened before they were born. We are all individuals, with a right to be known and remembered for our own actions.

He answered questions on his early life and experiences after giving his lecture, going into his thoughts and feelings on events, and very understandably saying that he still finds his past painful. It was intensely moving to hear him speak so articulately of the horrors he has witnessed. John Dobai came across to me as remarkably brave man, doing something very important.
His work in lecturing on his life and remembering the Holocaust, his family and the other victims, is crucial in today's world. People often prefer to brush painful subjects over, and while being aware of them, they would rather pretend they were not. But it is a week and 70 years since the largest concentration camp, Auschwitz, was liberated, and we cannot brush this over.

John requested that we do not act indifferent to discrimination, of any type. This legacy of the Holocaust is extremely essential to remember. We cannot forget, and we cannot always put blame on others. The things we do not do make us into the people we are, as much as the actions we actually carry out. He spoke of how Hungary still does not today freely admit that they committed war crimes themselves, and continue to blame Germany. But it is widely known that the German people of today have come a long way in accepting their past and moving forward.

To sum up my thoughts, I came away from the lecture with two significant messages. One is that we should not brush over and forget events such as the Holocaust, because forgetting makes it harder to move on and face the future, which will hopefully a better one. And secondly, we are what we make of ourselves. Humans have committed dreadful acts in the past, but we have the right to be judged by our own actions, and on our own initiatives. We have been given the task of standing up to injustice in today's world, and to not be bystanders. I sincerely hope there is never again such an act of genocide as during the second world war, but that does not lessen crimes of the modern day and give them any more legitimacy.
John Dobai is an incredibly example of making something good out of something terrible, through his work in promoting the remembrance of the Holocaust and its victims. His lecture was emotive and inspiring, and I am very glad to have heard his thoughts first hand.

I intend to visit Budapest myself in July 2015 and I feel I will now go with a more open mind, and an more open heart to the injustice suffered, and what can be done to help make our tomorrow better as a human race.