Yom HaShoah 5769

היום שנים עשר יומים שהם שבוע אחד וחמשה יומים לעמר
Today is the twelfth day of the omer - one week and five days
הוד שבגבורה
A day of humility in a week of strength



Today is Yom HaShoah--a day of remembrance for those who suffered in the brutal Holocaust brought on by Adolf Hitler and his supporters in Nazi Germany--honoring both those who we lost and those who survived. I encourage you all to visit the Holocaust Survivors and Remembrance Project. Scroll down, enter the site, take some time today to remember. We must remember, we must never forget--for to forget dooms other innocent people who could be imprisoned, tortured, and murdered for no reason other than the fact that they exist.

This year, with the loss of my dear friend Mitzi Wilner, the remembrance is touching me deeply. Mitzi survived by living as a Catholic nanny using her best friend's papers with her friend's maiden name. But her parents, her sisters, and much of her family were captured in the German "actions" in her Polish town. It was so important, each year, for her to honor their memories. Now, in honoring her memory, I honor them as well.



I would also like to honor those of my family that were lost. Above you see a postcard sent to my grandmother in 1933. It's a photo of her sister Mantzi with her husband Josef Vogel and their children. She and her family perished in 1942 when the Nazi's took over the town and sent all the Jews to a death camp.

לא תשכח
We will never forget