ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author reflects on Canadian Catholic theologian Gregory Baum’s observation that research and thinking are based on personal concerns and how that has been true for her. She suggests that while these concerns may be personal to her and to why the author have devoted so many years to thinking, researching, writing, and teaching undergraduate and graduate students about the Holocaust, these concerns should not be overlooked by anyone involved in Holocaust studies. Jules Isaac also survived because French Catholics hid him, but what he could not understand, either during the war and the Holocaust or after, was why the Nazis and their collaborators targeted and killed people simply because they were Jews. Words mattered during the centuries leading up to the Holocaust. Words mattered during the Nazi era and the Holocaust. The Holocaust began with words—hateful words aimed at people who were considered different.
