Yom HaShoah: A day of remembrance

This week, we remembered the six million Jews whose lives were taken during the Holocaust. In Israel, it is considered a national memorial day. At 10am, wherever you may be [in Israel], sirens go off.  Everyone stops what they’re doing.  Traffic doesn’t move.  People remove themselves from their  cars and stand in silence.  For two complete minutes, Israel just stops.  For two minutes, every soul in the state dedicates that time to commemorate the six million Jewish lives that were tragically taken from this world.

Taken at the Theresienstadt concentration camp in the Czech Republic (Prague)

Why is this day so important? Why should you care? Yom HaShoah in the states is just as important as it is in Israel.  So many people here are uneducated about such a significant time in history.  There are people in this world who say the Holocaust never happened. It is our job, Jewish or not Jewish, to remember. To keep ourselves informed. To educate. It’s more than our job, it is our duty to remind our peers, our friends, about how real the Holocaust truly was. The events that took place during the Holocaust were extremely heinous and monstrous and are sadly still happening today in some areas of the world. We must stand up and fight for those who are oppressed. We cannot ignore what we know is happening.  It is our time to honor the lives taken in the Holocaust and to give them the respect they so deserve.

Treblinka extermination camp, north-east of Warsaw, Poland

Although we cannot change the past, we have every ability to make a better future for our world. Many Holocaust survivors are passing away. Sadly, we knew this would eventually happen however, there is something you and I can do.  We need to learn their stories. We need to share these stories with everyone we know and start a chain reaction in memoriam of these men and women. Their lives, their life stories, must be held dearly to our hearts, we must never forget them.

A page out of the Majdanek Death Book, located in Lublin, Poland

Last week here at the University of Delaware, was Holocaust education week. On the green was a display of 1,200 flags. Each color resembled a different population targeted during the Holocaust.  The point of this past week was to make available events to students who were interested in learning more.  Isaac Dostis, a Romaniote Jew, was brought on campus to speak at Hillel to describe how the Holocaust affected his home community in Greece.  A “six for siz” name reading honored the six million Jews who lost their lives in the Holocaust. UD did what every campus across America should be doing.  We honored the countless number of lives taken in the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a terrible time in the 20th century. It is our job to take part in events such as the ones for Holocaust education week, whether it’s on campus or in our hometowns.

Taken at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, Israel

Memory is what shapes us. Memory is what teaches us. We have to understand that where our memory is, is where the lives of the eleven million who died, six million of them Jewish, will forever be. The fact is that although the Holocaust is a deeply personal Jewish tragedy, it is also a tragedy that resonates with the rest of the universe as well. We must always remain vigilant. It is up to you and me to protect the memory of the Holocaust.  Rather than to hide away in fear of being judged or made fun of, we have to tackle this head on with passion and drive. Never forget. לעולם אל תשכח.