“When I was liberated in 1945 by the American Army, somehow many of us were convinced that at least one lesson will have been learned—that never again will there be war, that hatred is not an option, that racism is stupid…. I was so hopeful.”
— Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, during a June 2009 visit to the Buchenwald concentration camp with President Barack Obama, reflecting on his feelings at the moment he was freed.
This diary is for Holocaust Remembrance Day. Please do not bring I/P discussions here.
Today is Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the United States, today starts the period of Days of Remembrance (this year, April 11-18), to commemorate the Holocaust and educate people here and around the world about the atrocities that took place. This year is the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps from WWII. The theme of this year's commemoration is "Stories of Freedom: What You Do Matters".
Communities all over the nation and the world will hold ceremonies to read the names of those 6 million lost during that terrible time. Our survivors are not getting any younger, but they still come out to schools and tell their stories to rapt audiences who then better understand the personal and very human cost of such horror.
The history of what happened during the Holocaust belongs to each and every one of us. We have an absolute responsibility to remember what took place, and ensure that it never happens again.
Last year, President Obama visited the site of the Buchenwald camp with Mr. Elie Wiesel. He stated:
“We are here today because this work is not finished. To this day, there are those who insist that the Holocaust never happened—a denial of fact and truth that is baseless and ignorant and hateful. This place is the ultimate rebuke to such thoughts, a reminder of our duty to confront those who would tell lies about our history.”
Truer words have not been spoken. The victims of the Holocaust, the survivors, the soldiers who freed the camps- they have all held personal witness to the human depravity that comes when evil and indifference are allowed to take root together.
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum is an excellent resource for learning more. To hear survivor stories, to participate in person or virtually in a names reading ceremony, to arrange for a speaker for your school or group, please follow those links.
Please consider today, or sometime this week, taking a moment to remember, to light a candle or plant a tree, to commemorate the liberation of the survivors and the loss of millions of Jews and others.
Do you have a survivor story? How do you remember and commemorate?