By Daniel M. Zeman

As I made my way to PE class, something happened that shook me to my core. Picture this: a 13-year-old classmate standing ahead of me, yelling, “Raise your hand if you want to bring back Hitler to kill all the Jews,” all while laughing as if it were a joke. Yet what was even more chilling was that six of his friends eagerly raised their hands as if they were answering a trivia question, their innocence replaced by a disturbing indifference.

Six. Seemingly innocuous, it has many meanings. It can signify the mere addition of five plus one; half a dozen; indicate the time, “It’s six o’clock,” or to them, simply as a statement: six million people died, six raised their hands, six students were okay with the six million whose lives were taken away. I felt an immense sense of powerlessness and since I had never experienced this level, I simply looked away. I was scared and I knew this was only the beginning.

Read the full article here.