Today on Holocaust Remembrance Day, I think of the 6,000,000+ Jews who were murdered mercilessly by the Nazis. I think of the other groups of people who were targeted- including the gypsies, homosexuals, and disabled.
I think of how I lit one candle today in honor of one woman who lost her life at 18 years old. It took me about 10 seconds to do that. How long would it take me to light a candle for each person affected, let alone killed?
I think of how my grandfather had been fleeing from the Nazis when they came to his town in Russia, how he had to jump off of the train while bombs were flying overhead, how his mother thought he had been killed before he finally made it to his aunt’s house.
I think of how people from my family’s town who were buried alive, how the ground was shaking for several days because people were trying to escape.
I think of Victor Nahmias, who was 12 years old at the time. I will never forget the moment I saw his photo in a museum in Germany and how affected I had been by his story when I was able to contact his family.
I think of how cold I was when I went to Germany and stood in the open field of one of the labor camps- where the Nazis had forced so many to stand for hours upon hours. How those people had suffered before eventually dying/being gassed… and hadn’t had the opportunity to ever walk out of those borders.
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| Victor Nahmias, whose story can be found here. |
I think of the train tracks I visited, where people were being loaded onto carts to be deported to concentration and forced labor camps.
I can go on and on.
I think… though I don’t want to.
Yet I must. We must.
Yet I must. We must.
We must remember so that when we say Never Again- it actually means something.
Every day, and especially today, I am proud to be a Jew and to be able to state, "Am Yisroel Chai"- The Nation of Israel Lives.