This year Holocaust Remembrance Day is commemorated today April 21, 2009.

Last night was our town’s community wide Holocaust remembrance.  Each year it is held in the town’s high school auditorium and the room is filled.  For the last few years I have taken my kids with me.  It is not an argument (as I remember going with my father) for me to get them to go.  They ask to go and remember last year’s event and ask questions about who will be speaking etc.   It is amazing how they stand and sit in silence completely understanding the importance of the moment.

Esther Terner-Raab was the speaker at this year’s event.

She is a survivor of Sobibor death camp and has an amazing story to tell.  She lived through hell and survived to tell her story.  She has helped bring those responsible to justice by testifying at war crime trials.  Many books, movies and stories have been written about Sobibor and the brave who fought back trying to survive. I scanned her bio from the event handout.  Hopefully you can read it.  The bio does more justice to her story then I can.

This year it was particularly moving.  At one point all the survivors in attendance stood in the darkened and silenced auditorium holding candles for a moment of silence.  It is scary to think that 70 years ago these people had normal and happy lives and it all changed.  As the years go by there are fewer and fewer survivors left to stand holding candles.

The evening ends with the reading of the family names (from community families) of those who were lost. As the names are read 6 groups of 3 generations (survivor, child, grandchild) walk up and stand on stage holding candles commemorating the 6 million lost and celebrating the survival and promise of the future generations.

Why do I go when I can easily find many other activities to fill my time? 
I feel somewhat obligated to go but at the same time proud to be there.  My grandparents were lucky enough to escape the war in Germany before things got bad (not that they had an easy life).  When they arrived in the US they had nothing.  My father grew up never knowing his grandparents, many uncles, aunts or cousins.  My grandparents left everything they had behind and never saw their parents, extended families and most friends again. There are many stories much more dramatic than my father’s family.  I go because I am grateful for his family’s survival and sad for the family I never will know.  I go to remember the millions of people who were killed for what they believed in and for who they were.  I go so my kids will never forget, so they ask questions and so that the atrocities are never repeated.  I go to hear the stories of the survivors which must be told.  I go to remember that nothing good comes from hate. I go to never forget.

This year help the world remember this genocide and prevent future atrocities.  Attend a commemoration, visit a museum, watch one of the documentaries or read one of the many books on the subject.  Most of all never forget.


Here are two key resources (many more exist):
Yad Vashem
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

See below for a list of books recommended at the event.