Holocaust Remembrance Day

[Minskaya]

A woman lights a candle during a ceremony marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Russia's first Jewish Museum in Moscow

In 2005, the United Nations designated January 27 as the international day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust. Today also marks the 68th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp by Soviet troops in 1945. Memorial events took place all across the European continent. Especially poignant were the memorials at Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising monument in Poland. In Israel, Yom Hashoah U'Mered HaGetaot (Holocaust and Ghetto Revolt Remembrance Day) is commemorated on the 27th of Nissan.

[Doktor]

There is nothing on the website of the Jewish Community over here.

I know that every year on March 11, there is a big commemoration for the Macedonian Jews who were sent to Treblinka. Bulgarians sent ~98% (7.200 people) of Macedonian Jews to the camps of death on that day in 1943.

RIP and may it never happen again, to any group.

[tankie]

Totally horrific should NEVER be forgotten , man's inhumanity to man , RIP the murdered

[Parihaka]

I was born less than 15 years after the worst of it was wound up, nowadays it seems to be treated as some sort of historical oddity, as though western culture has always been as it is now and forget about what occurred less than a century ago. "that was them, we're not like that". As tankie says, never forget.

[zraver]

Man is cruel, hopefully with reminders these type of acts wont happen any more. Sadly we don't have a very good track record. There are at least 20 probably 5x that holocaust type events in human history.

[bigross86]

It is physically impossible for me to find these videos and post them for you without becoming emotional and vowing once again to never, ever, ever let a Holocaust sweep this earth is it did once before

The last Seder in the Warsaw Ghetto

There was one Moishele, the last Moishele in the Warsaw Ghetto, asking his father "Ma nishtana". "Ma nishtana halayla hazeh mikol haleylot?" [Why is this night different from all other nights?, an integral part of the Passover Seder], why this night so long and more terrible than any nights before?

While Moishele is asking all the question heaven and earth stood still. The angels were afraid to make noise and his father... His father wants to answer "Avadim Hayinu" [We were slaves to Pharoah, the beginning of the Passover Seder and the answer to Ma nishtana].

Moishele says "Tatte ziser (Sweet Father) I have one more question of my own and this is my question: I want to know Tatte ziser, would I still be alive next year to ask you Ma nishtana? Would there any Jewish child be left to ask the Ma nishtana? Will there any jewish father be left to answer "Avadim Hayinu"?

And the father answered: I don't know, I don't know if I'll be alive, I don't know, I don't know if you'll be alive. But I know that there will always be one Moishele somewhere, somewhere asking the Ma nishtana. I don't know if we'll be alive, but I know one thing: "Ki beshem kodshecah nisbatah lo shelo yichbeh nero le'olam va'ed" (For by Your holy name You swore to him, that his light would never be extinguished)

B'shetzef ketzef histarti panai rega mimech ub'khesed olam richamtich, amar go-aleich Hashem. (In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.)

Ub'rega katan azavtich, uvirachamim gedolim akabtzeich (For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. )

Suddenly a thunder crash,
A lightning flash across the sky,
A people gathered in a square,
Children cry.

A rifle cracks, a shot rings out,
An old man falls to the ground,
His dying words, Hashem echad [The Lord is one, a part of the daily Shema Yisrael, Hear, O Israel prayer]
He's just turned around.

And suddenly the order was heard
"People gather together"
They said goodbye to their friends,
-Goodbye forever.

And even as the trucks rolled up,
And even as the tears rolled down,
The people cried Hashem echad
He's just turned around.

This last one is the most interesting one, it is sung by Remedy, a Jewish rapper that is a member of the Wu Tang Clan.


Feel this,
To all those races, colors, and creeds, every man bleeds for the
countless victims and all their families of
the murdered, tortured and slaved, raped, robbed and persecuted
Never Again, To the men, women, and children.
Who died in their struggle to survive, never to be forgotten.
Reuven Ben Menachum, yo my own blood, dragged through the mud
Perished in my heart still cherished and loved
Stripped of our pride, everything we lived for
Families cried, there's no where to run to, no where to hide
Tossed to the side, Access denied
6 million died for what? Yo a man shot dead in his back
Helpless women and children under constant attack
For no reason, till the next season, and we still bleeding
Yo it's freezing, And men burn in hell, some for squeezing
No hope for a remedy, nothing to believe
Moving targets who walk with the star in their sleeve
Forever marked wit a number, tattooed to your body
Late night, eyes closed, clutched to my shotty
Having visions, flashes of death camps and prisons, no provisions
Deceived by the devils decisions, forced into a slave
Death before dishonour for those men who were brave
Shot and sent to their grave, can't awaken, it's too late
Everything's been taken, I'm shaken, family, history, the making

Never again shall we march like sheep to the slaughter
Never again shall we sit and take orders
Stripped of our culture, robbed of our name
Raped of our freedom and thrown into the flames
Forced from our families, taken from our homes
Moved from our God then burned of our bones
Never again, never again, shall we march like sheep to the slaughter
Leave our sons and daughters, stripped of our culture
Robbed of our name
Raped of our freedom and thrown into the flames
Forced from our families, taken from our homes
Moved from our God and everything we own

Some fled through the rumors of wars
But most left were dead, few escaped to the shores
With just one loaf of bread, banished, hold in for questioning
And vanished, Never to be seen again, I can't express the pain
That was felt in the train to Auschwitz, tears poured down like rain
Naked face to face, with the master race, Hatred blood and David
My heart belongs to God and stay sacred
Rabbi's and priests, Disabled individuals
The poor, the scholars all labeled common criminals
Mass extermination, total annihilation
Shipped into the ghetto and prepared for liquidation
Tortured and starved, innocent experiments
Stripped down and carved up or gassed to death
The last hour, I smelled the flowers
Flashbacks of family then sent to the showers
Powerless undressed, women with babies clumped tight to their chest
Crying, who would've guessed -- dying, another life lost
Count the cost, another body gas burned and tossed in the holocaust

Never again shall we march like sheep to the slaughter
Never again shall we sit and take orders
Stripped of our culture, robbed of our name
Raped of our freedom and thrown into the flames
Forced from our families, taken from our homes
Moved from our God then burned of our bones
Never again, never again, shall we march like sheep to the slaughter
Leave our sons and daughters, stripped of our culture
Robbed of our name
Raped of our freedom and thrown into the flames
Forced from our families, taken from our homes
Moved from our God and everything we own

Never Again, Never Again
The final solution is now retribution
Remedy, Wu-Tang..

[man praying in Hebrew]
[Movie sample]
FIRE!
[GUNSHOT]

The opening prayer in Hebrew is the Friday night benediction over the wine, and is taken from the movie Schindler's List. The chorus is based heavily on HaTikva, The Hope, Israel's national anthem.

[dave lukins]

I read or saw an article about a lady surviver of three concentration camps. Not many years ago she went to the dentist and he saw the faded tattoo number on her arm and he asked what it was. She replied that it was done in ''Auschwitz a long time ago''. His reply was..''What's auschwitz''? I found that rather sad.

[bigross86]

I read or saw an article about a lady surviver of three concentration camps. Not many years ago she went to the dentist and he saw the faded tattoo number on her arm and he asked what it was. She replied that it was done in ''Auschwitz a long time ago''. His reply was..''What's auschwitz''? I found that rather sad.

I find it a wonderful thing that there are so many different ways that people try and keep the memory of the Holocaust alive, especially considering the amount of Holocaust deniers there are in the world.

[zraver]

I read or saw an article about a lady surviver of three concentration camps. Not many years ago she went to the dentist and he saw the faded tattoo number on her arm and he asked what it was. She replied that it was done in ''Auschwitz a long time ago''. His reply was..''What's auschwitz''? I found that rather sad.

I went to a presentation given by a Holocaust survivor, IIRC she was born in Estonia, lost her father in 41 when the Germans invaded. Ended up lying about her age at Auschwitz to fall within the range of people they were looking for, for slave labor. Then ended up being marched across Poland and Eastern Germany ahead of the Soviets before finally being liberated. She met her husband among the multitude of displaced Jews at the end of WWII and they moved to the US.

Her presentation was thankfully given to a packed house at UCA.

[S2]

My first exposure came at nine (1964) in W. Germany. My parents gave me a pictoral history of W.W.II. for Christmas. My true introduction to the war and the holocaust. Unlike an image that flickered across a movie screen or T.V., these pictures had a stoic persistent audacity to STARE back at me.

Foremost were the photos from the camps. I was near some, Dachau for instance, but they were places I NEVER wanted to see. I got the story.

Still do.

Unfortunately, NEVER AGAIN has become a lie to comfort those of us not Jewish. They take it seriously. Did we? If so, how can we explain the communists in China, Kampuchea's killing fields or Rwanda?

The only answer is to keep your vigil high, your powder dry and be ready to die like a man if they come knocking at your door.

[zraver]

Unfortunately, NEVER AGAIN has become a lie to comfort those of us not Jewish. They take it seriously. Did we? If so, how can we explain the communists in China, Kampuchea's killing fields or Rwanda?

In part because "Never Again" would mean opening too many closets. The Jews say, "Never Again" will we be victims. But too many people in the west think it means "Never Again" will we let there be victims. Instead the west should embrace, "Never Again" will we victimize. Every major member state of the West has inflicted one or more Holocaust scale genocides on someone else. Its a very uncomfortable truth that most don't want to admit too, and so they hide behind a fiction (of being the good guys) instead of standing on principle.

The Holocaust is nothing more than the sad, logical outgrowth of generations of religious intolerance, antisemitism and colonial views on the rights of conquered and subject peoples given time to fester and rot in Europe and the Americas.

[lemontree]

I have a reminder of the holocast with me at home - a 4 inch strand of the barb wire from Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg, Germany.
It is a grim reminder of that evil era.

I'm proud to be in a country where the Jews were never prosecuted and have had a safe home since 2500 years (Cochin Jews and Bene Israel).

[Bigfella]

I was vaguely aware of the holocaust before I was 10. I don't recall when or how - I suspect it was the TV dramatization 'Holocaust'. I was too young to watch it, but I saw enough to be aware that a terrible thing had happened. What made this real to me was when my parents took us on a holiday to Europe in 1980. They took us to Dachau. Though we were not allowed to see the worst of it - the film that was shown - we walked through the huts, saw the crematoria & a shower block that was very similar to a gas chamber (it may heve even been made up as a gas chamber, but it was never used as such). We also saw the photographs. So many. So terrible.. I won't pretend that I really understood all of this at the time, but that experience seeped into my being & has never left me.

Sadly 'never again' has proved to be more than our flawed species is capable of. If, however, the lessons of the holocaust cause even one nation or one people to step back from the precipice of genocide; if they convince only one nation or one person to step in to protect a people or to give them refuge, then we have done some small honour to the memory of those who died.

[Doktor]

Well, one can only hope.

[The Black Ghost]

Important events to remember. Hopefully it will serve as a lesson of what happens when radical nationalists try to gang up on minorities and blame them for their problems.