Yom Ha Shoah

" . . . I should like someone to remember that there once lived a person named David Berger."
David Berger in his last letter, Vilna 1941

I found this quote on the Yad Vashem website.

My friend Goldie Rassen, herself a survivor, says Kaddish - the prayer for those who are gone - every Shabbat. She stands and recites the prayer for those lost in the Holocaust, with no one left to say Kaddish for them. Lately I have realized that when she is gone, I will stand and say the Kaddish for them. It is one small way I can be sure that there is a remembrance of David Berger and all the rest.

When I look at photos like these from Hanefesh.com, the website of the National Assembly of Hebrew students, taken at the end of the Warsaw Uprising



and these taken by two SS officers of the arrivals at Auschwitz


I can't help but put myself in their places. These are my people; they are my family. I have always felt that, from the time I was a young girl. I used to wonder--would I have survived? There is no way to answer that question. All we can do now is remember, and keep the light of Judaism alive.

And so, my Yom HaShoah Yarzheit candle is lit in remembrance of those we lost and to remember that through those of us who are here, the Jewish people will survive.