Holocaust Remembrance Day

Thursday, May 5, is the International Holocaust Remembrance Day and in Israel, life comes to a complete halt. In Hebrew, this day is called "Yom Hashoah." We look at the story behind one of the most heart-wrenching, tragic periods in the history of the Jews and in remembrance of those who died in the Holocaust, candles will be lit.

This day is held in remembrance of the six million Jews brutally killed during World War II. Hitler's genocide (the intentional act to eliminate an ethnic or religious group) was carried out between 1941 and 1945 as war raged across Europe. Of the 6,000,000 who died, 1,500,000 of them were children.

Photo: Gas chamber at Auschwitz.

Photo: Children as inmates of Auschwitcz concentration camp after liberation in January, 1945.

When the war ended, so did the killing and those who survived were released from the concentration camps and others came out of hiding. Last night we watched a documentary about a group of Jews who hid under the ground in a cave for months. All thirty survived and when they returned to see the cave, one woman said she had learned to find a quiet peace as they lived in the dark. It's hard to imagine their suffering and struggle to survive.

Events will take place across the world today to mark the memorial day which also commemorates subsequent genocides around the world.

Photo: Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky lays a wreath during a visit to the Nazi German extermination camp as part of the ceremonies commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day in a Poland village.

Anne Frank was a survivor of the Holocaust and quotes from her diary have provided inspiration to the world. The Frank family fled from Nazi Germany and remained in hiding until their capture in August, 1944. “The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.” ― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“I've found that there is always some beauty left -- in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you.” ― Anne Frank

Photo: Hungarian holocaust remembrance. “I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.” ― Anne Frank Photo: This is a picture taken in April of 1945 at the gate of Auschwitz, the concentration camp where Jews were taken. “Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness. People are just people, and all people have faults and shortcomings, but all of us are born with a basic goodness.” ― Anne Frank

Flowers lay on a slab of the Holocaust Memorial to commemorate the victims of the Nazi in Berlin.

The electrified, barb wire fence surrounding the Dachau concentration camp in Germany.

In April of 1944, a declaration ordered all Jews in Hungary to prominently wear yellow stars. This was a Jewish couple in Budapest.

A woman looks at the names of the Jews transported to concentration and extermination camps.

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.” ― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

Photo: An Auschwitz survivor walks out of the gate with the sign saying, "Work makes you free."

A quote from a Holocaust survivor: "When we were coming . . . coming to Majdanek, the women were so crazy--not they just hollered, they got out of their mind. A whole night they was lay down in the fields separate, and men are separate. I got a good friend. He was a furrier. He was working for somebody there, and he get up in the middle of the night, and they shot him. We never heard nothing. In the morning I looked around for him, where he is, and I find him dead. Nobody don't supposed to get up . . . stand up at night."

Photo: Holocaust survivors. Today in Jerusalem sirens will sound for two minutes at 10 AM in remembrance of the Holocaust survivors and shops and restaurants will be closed down. Let us take pause and be respectful of our Jewish brothers and sisters who died unmercifully during the Holocaust and those who survived. At the Jerusalem Center today, my music will be more somber in respect for Yom Hashoah. (Note: Photos in this blog are from various Holocaust sites.) Photo: This photo was taken by Janice Clayton (organist who served at the JC in 2014). This was her comment about this photo: We were on a bus headed out for a student activity on Holocaust Memorial Day in 2014. When the sirens sounded all traffic stopped and people got out of their cars and stood at attention remembering their deceased family members. I caught this photo out of the bus window.