Yom Hazichron LaShoa (Holocaust Remembrance Day)

Each year, eight days before their Independence Day, Israel dedicates itself to the remembrance of the Holocaust. So I thought I might share a few of the experiences of my day. In many places, there are signs with the word "eezcor" which means "Remember". At 10am, a loud siren sounds across the country which stops everyone in their tracks. Cars stop driving, people stop walking, speaking, or eating and sit for two minutes. Throughout the day there are ceremonies in many places which continue on into the night. In the center in which I volunteer, they held a two hour ceremony singing songs and talking about the history of the Holocaust. At the University, a second generation Holocaust survivor spoke of her parents' experiences before they came to Israel and started a family. A large crowd of students gathered to listen to her speak and ask questions. Her father had been placed in a work camp and was in the death hut with terrible dysentery when their camp was liberated by the Allies. He nursed himself back to health before making his way to Romania and then later to Israel where he lived on kibbutzes for the remainder of his life. In one particularly horrific anecdote, the speaker told of two SS guards who were captured by the Allies and interrogated by her father because he was the only one around who could speak German. The Germans had been guards at a death camp where the rest of her father's family had been killed. He asked the Allied troops what they planned on doing with the Germans and then he asked if he could have them to kill for himself. The troops complied and he marched the two Germans out and shot them. Years later, when a reporter asked him how he felt about this act of revenge, he said he felt nothing. Nothing because it was so small, so insignificant.

Later, back in our apartment, my roommates were nice enough to tell stories from their own families past. Shai, a descendant of Polish immigrants, had many stories to tell as three of his grandparents were in camps or ghettoes at some point. One grandmother was in a Polish ghetto with the rest of her family for several years as a small child. On the night before the camp was liquidated, her mother made her stay up very late so that she was very tired and slept through most of the rest of the day. When she awoke, there was no one left. Her entire family was gone as was the rest of the Jewish ghetto. She crawled out under one of the fences, setting off an alarm while she did so, and was shot by one of the guards in the leg who mistook her for a small animal. She struggled to walk for miles before finally collapsing and being taken in by a Parish priest who kept her in a monastery for the duration of the war. Another grandmother was being sent to Auschwitz to be exterminated and decided to try to commit suicide by jumping from the train but ended up living and hiding out in the forests and scavenging for food before somehow making her way to Israel. Shai's grandfather escaped to the forests of Belarus and Ukraine where his and 46 other families tried to avoid Russian and German troops and local residents who would shoot them on sight. At the end of the war, there were less than 20 survivors and his grandfather the only one from his family who had survived.

It is rare to hear of such stories out in the open and this day provides that opportunity. The Holocaust is a topic difficult to broach with many people much of the rest of the year. Yet, it is never far from the consciousness of this country. Being here, I am constantly reminded of this Jewish tragedy. I think it will take generations if not more for forgiveness and healing to take place. Holocaust deniers and anti-semitism will forever threaten this process and I can understand how angry Israeli's become to hear of Ahmedinejad's recent speech at a conference on racism. There is good reason for criticism of Israel on several counts regarding its treatment of Israeli-Arabs and Palestinians in the territories but coming from a man who denies the Holocaust is not acceptable. Israel's feeling of vulnerability and the call for its destruction by its enemies are a constant reminder of how close the Jewish people came to extermination. Most days I read in the newspapers here about the imminence of a nuclear holocaust if Iran were to acquire such weapons. This notion is debatable but considering the Jewish people's recent history it is not unreasonable. Thus, the threat seems that much more real and impending for people living with such a historical memory. In this way, I think Israeli militant and self-reliant behavior is much more understandable. There are some in the Arab and Muslim world that are teaching about the Holocaust and attempting to inform a public which knows very little about it. They believe that understanding the Holocaust is one of the keys to understanding Israel. I think that this is not far from the truth.