Trudy Gold
Warnings and Sirens from History: The Nazis and the Dismemberment of Democracy
Summary
A wide-ranging and insightful discussion on the importance of reflecting on the lessons of history, particularly the rise of Nazi Germany, raising questions about human nature, the dangers of closed ideologies, the role of education and culture, media influence, and democracy with an independent judiciary.
Trudy Gold
Trudy Gold was the CEO of the London Jewish Cultural Centre and a founding member of the British delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Throughout her career she taught modern Jewish history at schools, universities, and to adult groups and ran seminars on Holocaust education in the UK, Eastern Europe, and China. She also led Jewish educational tours all over the world. Trudy was the educational director of the student resources “Understanding the Holocaust” and “Holocaust Explained” and the author of The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization.
I do not believe there’s anything specific about any nation, I believe we are products of our history. I don’t believe that some nations are good and some nations are bad, I think people are people, but we are products of our time and our history and that has to influence us.
I was involved in holocaust education in eastern Europe, even in China, we really did believe that if we taught it properly we could cure some of the evils of antisemitism and hatred of the other. It does seem, when there’s economic, social, and political chaos, all that education goes out of the window.