This year, Holocaust Remembrance Day was honored on May 5th.

I spent Fall 2014 studying abroad in The Netherlands, about a twenty-minute train ride south of Amsterdam. Because I was so close to this historic city and also so near Schipol International Airport, I spent breaks from school and spare weekends traveling to historic sites across Europe, many of which were involved in World War II, either as part of Hitler’s regime or part of the war resistance. Twice, I went through The Secret Annex, the place where Anne Frank and her family, as well as the van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer hid for two years to avoid capture by the Gestapo. I was in awe of the cramped space and of how so many people managed to stay hidden for so long.

I traveled to Munich, Germany, where Hitler started the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (later known as the Nazi party) in a crowded beer hall. I walked around the city with a tour guide who showed us stray bullet holes left over from World War II, took us to the area where Hitler made his big speeches and navigated us through the paths that people took to avoid saying “Heil Hitler!”

I went to the university where the resistance group Die Weiße Rose (The White Rose) attended and where they were ultimately arrested by the Gestapo. Walking around the beaches of the Netherlands, I could still see bomb shelters wedged in the sand, tucked out of sight.

I am 22 years old. My only connections to World War II—at least Hitler’s part of the war —are walking through these spaces 70 years after the horrific events occurred and talking with my grandmother who was so young herself during the war. So why are people like me still drawn to this period of history, despite never having lived during or even immediately after this time?

It’s beyond our experience.

We live in a period of time that is far from peaceful, but at least in the U.S. and in other Western countries, many of us have no understanding of what it must feel like to fear for ourselves and everyone we love so intensely. During the Holocaust, millions of people feared for their lives. If you weren’t shipped off to a concentration camp, you were shot on the street, potentially in front of your family. Laws restricted you until you could barely move. There were air raids from both the people who were trying to hurt you and by the people trying to help you. Medical experiments were conducted in horrible ways. Today, the Western world has no experience that can compare to this genocide.

Nuance.

The Holocaust didn't only seek to eradicate Jewish people, though they were by far targeted the most heavily. Hitler's campaign sought to exterminate anyone who was considered undesirable—gay people, Gypsies, the elderly, the disabled, Communists, Catholics and more. Academic articles, books, movies and new documentaries are always being made to further explore a new perspective or new research being done about this time. The Holocaust has many faces.

People are willing to share their stories.

There are people who have lived through the horrific experience of the Holocaust who have made it their duty to share their survival stories. This is a very tangible connection for people like me who can feel so far removed from this part of history. We can hear and read the stories of people who lived through this part of history and we can see remnants of what it was like to live their lives.

We can learn a lot about resilience, bravery and strength.

Reading about people who hid away for many years and lived under intense threat, people who lived through the horrors of the concentration camps and people who tried to put a stop to the horror can change us and make us realize what is important about living. We can learn that bravery is possible even in the most terrifying of times. We can learn from the strength of survivors, who have found a way to live their lives in spite of so much hate and horror. For some like Eva Mozes Kor, that has meant forgiveness. For others, it has meant sharing their stories, or living their faith, or raising a family.

Even though the Holocaust ended in 1945, over seventy years ago, there is still so much to learn. Our continued focus on the Holocaust will help us to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself and that we grow as individuals to help make this world a better place.