Mr. Henderson Doesn't Know About Sad Stuff!

My Neighbor, Mr. Henderson, and a Very Big Question

My name is Jerome, and I'm seven! I like building forts and drawing pictures of rockets. My neighbor, Mr. Henderson, is a nice man. He gives me cookies sometimes! But yesterday, I learned something kinda… confusing about Mr. Henderson.

We were playing checkers on his porch. I was winning, because I’m a really good checker player. And I was telling him about a book I was reading at school. It's about a long, long time ago, when bad men called Nazis were hurting Jewish people.

“It’s called the Holocaust,” I told him. “And it was a really, really sad time. Lots of people died.”

Mr. Henderson just smiled. “Hol-o-what now?”

I said it again, slower. “The Holocaust. H-O-L-O-C-A-U-S-T.”

He still looked puzzled. "What exactly was this... Holocaust?"

I tried to explain. I told him about how the Nazis were mean and made lots of Jewish people go away. I told him about camps and, um, how some people didn’t get to come home. It’s hard to explain, because it’s so sad.

Mr. Henderson kept saying, “But, Jerome, why would they do that? Why would they hurt so many people?”

I didn't really know. My teacher said it was because of bad feelings and hate. It just didn't seem right! Why would anyone do that to anyone else?

He asked me a lot of questions. Like, “How many people are we talking about?” and "Are you sure this really happened?" I felt a little bit confused, because it’s a lot of information. I don't always get everything about big grown-up stuff.

Mommy said later that not everyone knows about the Holocaust, and sometimes people have questions. She said it's important to tell people about it so they can learn and understand, and so it doesn't happen again.

I think Mr. Henderson is still thinking about it. I hope he learns about it. It's a really important thing to know. Even if it's a sad thing. Maybe I’ll draw him a picture about it. A picture of rockets shooting away from the sadness. Because everyone deserves to be happy and safe.