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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsYom HaShoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day
Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG'vurah (יום הזיכרון לשואה ולגבורה; "Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day"
Some 12 million lives were extinguished by the Nazi regime and its allies. Persons murdered for who they were, not what they did. Jews, gays, lesbians, Roma, Poles, Slavs, and the mentally and physically challenged. Persons were murdered for having the "wrong" opinions; Communists, trade unionists, intellectuals, and other "malcontents." It was a systematic, state approved mechanism for ridding the Fatherland of it's Untermensch or undesirable sub-humans. It was cruel and highly effective. Three-quarters of European Jewry ceased to exist, almost half the world's population of Jews were erased from the planet. Anywhere from a quarter to almost half of the European Romani people had their lives extinguished. Medical experiments, death inducing labor, hunger, disease, and some of the most cruel methods of torture and execution were implemented.
Seventy years have passed and the survivors are dying, as are their first-person stories. It is important to remember them, as well as though, who risked their own lives to protect the lives of other innocent people. The heroes came from all walks of life, all types of religions, positions of power, and even some countries (Albania, Denmark) did what the could to stop the scourge of the Nazi death machine.
AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)MrBig
(640 posts)shenmue
(38,506 posts)MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)As soon as we forget what happened, it will happen again.
icymist
(15,888 posts)okaawhatever
(9,461 posts)sheshe2
(83,728 posts)aquart
(69,014 posts)Never forget what it felt like so that we always keep compassion for the newest and next victims of the fanatic's need to kill.
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)Hekate
(90,633 posts)LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)tblue
(16,350 posts)Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)calimary
(81,194 posts)First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for meand there was no one left to speak for me.
- Martin Niemöller (18921984)
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007392
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)MerryBlooms
(11,761 posts)stevenleser
(32,886 posts)one_voice
(20,043 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)And managed to miss the hourly bus back (it was on a Sunday), thereby compelling me to walk all the way back into town (New Haven is quite compact; maybe a mile and a half ).
Then there was the time an Autistic person I knew back in NYC went with me to the Jewish Museum in Carnegie Hill one afternoon. We went into the room that commemorates ha-Shoah. After a few seconds, she spun on her heel, walked out, and said -- out loud, a very big deal for her! -- "I don't want to be in there."
greatauntoftriplets
(175,731 posts)m-lekktor
(3,675 posts)one_voice
(20,043 posts)karynnj
(59,501 posts)From State.gov, so quoting the entire thing:
Teresa and I join all Americans today in observing Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Day. We bow our heads as we both mourn and honor the six million Jews and millions of others who perished in the most painful and horrific chapter in human history.
We lack the power to rewind the clock or to bring back those who were murdered. But we do have the power of remembrance, and we will never cease to honor the memory of those who were killed, to grieve their loss, and to cherish their names.
We remain indebted, as well, to the Holocaust survivors who, despite unspeakable trauma, continue to recount their painful experiences so that the passage of time does not lead to the forgetting of what must never be forgotten. We also draw inspiration from the reality that every child of every survivor is added testimony to the utter failure of Hitlers evil plan.
I was profoundly moved in 2013 when I visited Yad Vashem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-President Shimon Peres. A siren wailing through Jerusalem and then a nation standing together in silent reflection signify a profound tribute to the fallen, and a call to consciousness for us all, now and in perpetuity.
For us, then, remembrance is the beginning, not the end of our responsibility. The duty we have is an active one: to work with countries and partners around the globe to fight bigotry wherever it arises, to confront aggression, insist on truth, uphold the rule of law, and promote respect for the rights and dignity of every human being.
http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2015/04/240741.htm
beam me up scottie
(57,349 posts)Thank you.