When we were in Berlin, we stumbled upon this monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It was an amazing experience. The monument is set up with cement monoliths on a grid. When I walked in, they were up to my knees. As I moved in, however I begin to sink down and the cement blocks began to tower over me. I lost where Sheryl was very quickly. I felt strangely disoriented, even submerged. I also felt isolated, as I could only see down the aisles – there was no meeting or gathering place there. I also felt exposed. An organized group of people, if out to get me, could easily find me and there would be nowhere to hide.
This rather large art-based monument taught me something in my bones about dehumanization. The cement blocks were just standing there, doing their job, obeying their rules, maintaining their order just like so many of the people and institutions in Europe during the democide (murder by government) of our Jewish sisters and brothers. But the result of the totality of them is a terrifying combination of exposure and isolation for those targeted.
The process of dehumanization of any one group, ends up creating a grid of rules and fears creating exposure and isolation that over time overwhelms everyone.
As Ellie Wiesel said, “Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.”
The language being used in this nation about immigrants, people of color, the LGBTQI+ community and our Muslim and Jewish neighbors are building blocks in the process of dehumanization. Policies at the federal and state levels that marginalize these and other groups take these building blocks of dehumanization and systematize them in to a grid of exposure and isolation.
What I felt in the monument, I feel among us in the United States.
The monument in Berlin is intended to both commemorate and educate – so that we might never again become or build building blocks of the dehumanization that prepares us for violence against one another.
But dehumanization is not inevitable.
When we see a group being marginalized, if we heed the hard-won wisdom of Ellie Wiesel, and make them the center of the universe we can humanize one to another: bridging bias and building unity.