The atrocities that happened during the Holocaust are atrocities we cannot allow to happen again. It's deeply disturbing to me when I hear people minimize the horror or even deny its occurance.
It happened. It was real, bloody and cruel and it happened. Over 12 million people were killed during the holocaust. Half of those people were Jewish. 1.5 million were children under 12 years old.
Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, was established in 1953. The goal of Yad Vashem, and it's a major one, is to document all the events of the Holocaust. The library and archives opened to the public in 1957 and I'm sure it's still working it's task.
In 1959 the Israeli Knesset passed a special law creating a Holocaust Remembrance Day. The 27th day of the month of Nisan, according to the Jewish calendar, was chosen as the date. This date coincides with the beginning of the heroic revolt against the Nazis by Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. This year the date falls on April 25th according to the Julian calendar.
Today is Yom Hashoah.
Unless you're actually in Israel and have the honor of visiting Yad Vashem, lighting a candle and saying a prayer is the way remember the children of the Holocaust.
Time has passed and the people, men, women and children, who survived the Holocaust are growing old and dying. It is in the foreseeable future when we will have no one who directly remembers the Holocaust. Even the children who survived will be gone.
But they don't need to be forgotten.
Commemorate the children today.
And please. . .
NEVER FORGET.
