First ever UN Holocaust Commemoration
Symcha and I attended the first ever commemoration of the Holocaust at the United Nations on Friday January 27, 2006, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
In the impressive hall of the General Assembly of the United Nations we joined Holocaust survivors and others for this historic event. Yehuda Bauer, of Yad VaShem spoke in support of the United Nations, recalling what his mother told him when he was a youngster. “I may not be pretty, but I am your mother.” After his speech, the Vice President of the Assembly, a diplomat from India, thanked Dr. Bauer for what could become the new slogan of the United Nations: “we may not be pretty, but we are yours.”
This same diplomat read the names and shared a few words of people whose pictures were projected on the large screens. Culled from the archives of Yad VaShem the brief biographies reminded us of the diversity of the lives that were snuffed out by the Nazis and how human each was, how similar they were to any one of us. The act of reading the names was in and of itself, a defiance of the Nazi attempt to dehumanize and eradicate the memory of these people.
It was very poignant to hear the Ambassador of Israel, Dan Gillerman speak as he reminded everyone that had there been an Israel in 1938 or 1943, the Holocaust would not have occurred. He courageously linked the Nazi campaign to the current campaign of Iran to wipe out Israel.
The one who most moved those in attendance was Holocaust survivor, Gerta Klein who told her story, and told us about her best friend who perished on the Death March. Once the Nazis knew defeat was inevitable, and in some instances, even after having surrendered, Jews were sent on long marches, to liquidate as many of them as possible.
In the impressive hall of the General Assembly of the United Nations we joined Holocaust survivors and others for this historic event. Yehuda Bauer, of Yad VaShem spoke in support of the United Nations, recalling what his mother told him when he was a youngster. “I may not be pretty, but I am your mother.” After his speech, the Vice President of the Assembly, a diplomat from India, thanked Dr. Bauer for what could become the new slogan of the United Nations: “we may not be pretty, but we are yours.”
This same diplomat read the names and shared a few words of people whose pictures were projected on the large screens. Culled from the archives of Yad VaShem the brief biographies reminded us of the diversity of the lives that were snuffed out by the Nazis and how human each was, how similar they were to any one of us. The act of reading the names was in and of itself, a defiance of the Nazi attempt to dehumanize and eradicate the memory of these people.
It was very poignant to hear the Ambassador of Israel, Dan Gillerman speak as he reminded everyone that had there been an Israel in 1938 or 1943, the Holocaust would not have occurred. He courageously linked the Nazi campaign to the current campaign of Iran to wipe out Israel.
The one who most moved those in attendance was Holocaust survivor, Gerta Klein who told her story, and told us about her best friend who perished on the Death March. Once the Nazis knew defeat was inevitable, and in some instances, even after having surrendered, Jews were sent on long marches, to liquidate as many of them as possible.
posted by Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt at 10:01 AM
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