The Future of the Past; Auschwitz was liberated 60 years ago. Does the next generation of Europeans even care?

Byline: Tara Pepper

A sharp train whistle on the tracks leading to Auschwitz began last Thursday's ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp where more than 1 million Jews were killed. As evening closed in on the world leaders and Holocaust survivors gathered there, the kaddish--the Jewish prayer for the dead--as well as Christian prayers echoed among the bare trees in the snow-covered Polish countryside. Such gestures movingly conjured up the past. But they also underscored a pressing issue now facing Europe: how should the legacy of World War II be passed on to the next generation--and can they be forced to embrace it?

Across Europe, the 60th-anniversary commemorations are made especially poignant by the knowledge that over the next few years World War II will cease to be a living memory, as even its youngest soldiers--now in their 80s--die off. Many of their grandchildren already regard the war as ancient history or a costume drama. A recent BBC poll found that among Brits younger than 35, 60 percent had never heard of Auschwitz. The recent furor sparked by Prince Harry, who wore a swastika-emblazoned outfit to a costume party, heightened support for an EU proposal to ban all fascist insignia (which is already illegal in Germany, Austria and Hungary).

No one seems certain how--or even whether--this painful history should be passed on. Eva Hoffman, author of "Lost in Translation," a memoir of her life as the daughter of Holocaust survivors, warns that ritualized gestures are not enough. "Important though it is to have moments of formal remembrance, we should not mislead ourselves into thinking that we have an automatic link [to] or memory of those events," she says. "We have to learn about these events and reflect on them." Within Germany, recent soul-searching connected with this year's anniversaries has reinforced the sense that coming to terms with history is a vital part of national identity. Because the last months of World War II were Germany's bloodiest, anticipation of this May's VE Day celebrations has triggered debate over whether the country can think of itself as a victim of a war it unleashed.

Greater distance from the past also opens up the possibility of understanding events more clearly. "There was a period of absolute horror when people didn't want to think about the war," says Hoffman. "That was followed by a period of philosophical and moral ...