Noah of New York, go to Auschwitz, Maidanek and Bergen Belsen. Breath the air of death, hell and hate. Then come back and continue to study / doing your mitzvot. For you it will be enough to do only (600+) -1 mitzvot. Visiting the camps should count for one. I am sure you will then understand why the "concept" as you call it so ineptly , has to be taught so in dept to our next generations. If they don't know, then who will be around to know in a few generations?? Like the exodus from Egypt, which you surely have heard about during the recent Seider. If we would have stopped talking about it, we, as a nation, would have ceased to exist a long time ago!!!! So, as a "concept" the Holocaus is not less important than let's say, the exodus from Egypt. Get my drift???

You write :"What did Ernest do to his 'comrades' that made them send him to his death in Auschwitz?" Answer : When Hitler started his hate-the-Jew speeches -- no one questioned Hitler, no one stopped Hitler. No one presented counter arguments to Hitler. And thus this poison of hatred could penetrate almost throughout Germany. This poison of hate-the-Jew became imbedded in the hearts and minds of the majority of Germans -- and were even exported to other countries. BECAUSE of this poisoned heart and mind -- those horrors could be perpetrated by the Nazi Germans. CONCLUSION : That's why hate speeches should be tackled immediately. IF not tackled -- it will grow, in due course, into an uncontrollable powerful force with devastating effects. BTW when Hitler started his hate-the-Jew speeches -- that was NOT God's will. When Nazi Germans gassed, burned, killed six million Jews -- that was NOT God's will. THAT'S why the Nazis had to be prosecuted and punished severely. WHY ? Because their, i.e. the Nazis, actions were NOT God's will.