History repeats, but the future cannot allow another Holocaust. If we forget about Nazis slaughtering 6-million-plus Jews – if we don’t remind ourselves and teach our children of this evil – humanity will see another massive genocide that could happen almost anywhere.

Education is the buffer against the monstrous ignorance that leads to hate-filled murder. Colorado Springs parents, teachers, mentors and clergy have a rare and extraordinary option to immerse themselves and children in the “Americans and The Holocaust” exhibit.

This is an honor for the Springs, which was chosen as one of only 50 locations to host the exhibit from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. It will be free and open to the public from September 9 to October 11 at the Pikes Peak Library District’s East Library.

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The exhibit correlates with this year’s All Pikes Peak Reads selection, “The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line: Untold Stories of the Women Who Changed the Course of World War II,” by Maj. Gen. Mari K. Eder (Ret.). The book is available at all the library’s branches. Eder will give a free keynote presentation and do a meet and greet and book signing Oct. 7 at Library 21c.

The book recounts true stories of women during the war, including those who served as pilots and spies, took Jewish refugees to the United States, smuggled Jewish families into Great Britain and ran hospitals and social services.

The Springs-based Greenberg Center for Learning and Tolerance is donating books that complement the exhibit. The center maintains a holocaust exhibit at the library provided by the Simon Wiesenthal Center – a Los Angeles-based global Jewish human rights organization co-founded by Colorado-based homebuilder Larry Mizel. The library and center lend the exhibit to schools, churches and synagogues.

Sunday, the Greenberg Center hosted a talk by honorary board member and Catholic priest Father John Pawlikowski at the Richard F. Celeste Theater. Pawlikowski is a founding board member of the U.S. Holocaust Museum and four-time presidential appointee.

Colorado Springs stands out among large cities for education, philanthropy, science and knowledge. We proudly host veterans and military personnel who devote their careers to defending the freedoms that prohibit genocides. That makes this a perfect place for a holocaust exhibit. It is the ideal location to launch a stand against the insidious rise in domestic and global antisemitism and other forms of identity hatred.

Everyone who is able should visit the exhibit and read about the girls who stepped out of line – the women who held justice over authority to save innocent lives. We hope to see visits by classrooms, homeschools, families, churches, synagogues and more. We should make this the most visited of all 50 exhibits.

The Holocaust is everyone’s business, lest history repeat.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board