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Yom HaShoah (1 Viewer)

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Footballguy
Today is the day for the Jewish people to remember the 6 million Jewish people killed during the Holocaust.

At the same time there is a WAPO report saying:

Asked to identify what Auschwitz is, 41 percent of American adults as a whole and 66 percent of millennials could not come up with a correct response identifying it as a concentration camp or extermination camp

if the numbers were 1/2 of that it would still be too startlingly high. We need to study this atrocity, educate the next generation, and do our best to ensure it is never repeated. Now with the rise in popularity and the publicity that those who would proudly wear a swastika are getting it is more important than ever to recall what those symbols mean. My son recently was able to go hear a holocaust survivor speak and it really moved him. Those opportunities are fading as that generation passes, but we MUST not let the memories fade. We owe them that.

So if you have a child, talk to them today. It is not an easy or fun topic to discuss, but it has to happen.

And for any of you on this board who are Jewish, or who might have family who were impacted, my prayers are with you. I will not forget, and I will try and not let others forget. 

 
My mother lost 85%+ of her family in the Holocaust. 

I don't have a grandfather, great aunts and uncles. Many who would have been but children, rounded up, tortured, experimented upon, cooked alive in ovens and in the gas chambers. 

Today we see the influences at work in the dark days of pre-nazi Germany at work. The world's leading nation at the time in terms of science, academics, philosophy, engineering... a learned nation where neighbors embraced neighbors, until selfishness and fear usurped humanity and goodwill. Those good people vilified their neighbors, cast them as less than worthy of being German to the point of no longer being worthy of being human. 

They say we will never forget.

Many have forgotten.

Many more simply never knew.

We must be more vigilant today than ever to push back on the allure of nationalism and false pride and faux patriotism. We must be more brace than ever to cut through the propoganda, call out those who wish to use the tactics of lies, confiscation and deceit to push a nationalist and inhuman agenda.

I will never meet the 85% of my family that was murdered simply because of who they were, what they were born, as. 

But Ill do my damndest to ensure that neither we nor any other leading nation falls down the same dark path that has occurred time and time again throughout history.

Never forget. Always seek to educate.  Prepare to fight for humanity and what is good inside each of us, even as the allure of darkness theatens to repeat history.

First they came for the Muslims and Arabs, and I'm neither and did not react, or perhaps even cheered. 

Next they came for DACA, and I was American born and said nothing... and perhaps even cheered

Then they came for the press, and I am not a journalist, and sat idly by. Or even cheered

Then they came for those who spoke against the great leader, and I live a simple private life and said nothing. Or maybe even cheered.

Then they came for me...

 
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Ive been to Auschwitz. It is  really haunting place. My grandparents lost most of their families. 

 
Update!

My son did a project on the Holocaust for school. It was one of 25 projects put on display at a local synagogue (temple? not sure the difference) for their community event for Yom Hashoah. As a result we went to the service, and I am very glad we did. The service had some prayers which I am not familiar with. It also had a speaker discuss the holocaust, pointing out (among other things) that it was not the ignorant who perpetrated and planned the atrocities, it was the well educated. Engineers, Doctors, Lawyers, etc.

After that they had survivors and descendants light candles.

The there was some...i am not sure if it was a prayer but something like that... where the rabbi said something in Hebrew and then someone in  would say the name of a concentration camp. I wish i had a translation to know what they were saying.

Finally there was a musical performance. There were 3 pieces from Jewish composers who died during the holocaust. 2 of the 3 pieces were written in concentration camps. Then there were 3 pieces that were written post holocaust.

All in all it was very moving and I am so glad we went. The actual building and sanctuary were beautiful as well. There was one thing that struck me though. Not in the sanctuary, but in the entryway and the hall there were 2 police officers. They were in their uniforms, i did not notice if they had guns but I assume they did. Their vehicle was parked out front.  They were not obtrusive or anything, but they were there. It struck me as a new experience that these people need a police presence to watch for disturbances at a Holocaust Memorial service. It says something about the current state of things that the chance that anti semetic Nazi #######s might actually intrude on an event like this. Honestly it made me very sad.

I'd encourage people to see if there is an event like this in your community next year and consider attending. I am very glad that through my son's school project we found out about it and attended.

 
Update!

My son did a project on the Holocaust for school. It was one of 25 projects put on display at a local synagogue (temple? not sure the difference) for their community event for Yom Hashoah. As a result we went to the service, and I am very glad we did. The service had some prayers which I am not familiar with. It also had a speaker discuss the holocaust, pointing out (among other things) that it was not the ignorant who perpetrated and planned the atrocities, it was the well educated. Engineers, Doctors, Lawyers, etc.

After that they had survivors and descendants light candles.

The there was some...i am not sure if it was a prayer but something like that... where the rabbi said something in Hebrew and then someone in  would say the name of a concentration camp. I wish i had a translation to know what they were saying.

Finally there was a musical performance. There were 3 pieces from Jewish composers who died during the holocaust. 2 of the 3 pieces were written in concentration camps. Then there were 3 pieces that were written post holocaust.

All in all it was very moving and I am so glad we went. The actual building and sanctuary were beautiful as well. There was one thing that struck me though. Not in the sanctuary, but in the entryway and the hall there were 2 police officers. They were in their uniforms, i did not notice if they had guns but I assume they did. Their vehicle was parked out front.  They were not obtrusive or anything, but they were there. It struck me as a new experience that these people need a police presence to watch for disturbances at a Holocaust Memorial service. It says something about the current state of things that the chance that anti semetic Nazi #######s might actually intrude on an event like this. Honestly it made me very sad.

I'd encourage people to see if there is an event like this in your community next year and consider attending. I am very glad that through my son's school project we found out about it and attended.
I recently read that a minority of the nations youth know what Auschwitz is... it seems we have all too predictably, forgotten.

For years I avoided many things Holocaust. To this day. I don't need to read books or visit a museum. I just need to remember the vacuous eyes the represented the shell of a woman that was my Grandmother, she having lived through it and lost just about everything. 

These continual reminders in my shattered - but surviving - family tree were enough and really, too much. There would be no Schindler's List for me.

Now, however, perhaps I need to reconfront my families history to do a better job telling the story. If we can even impress upon one more generation the horrors that we are capable of, that could save a lot of souls. 

 

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