How does one relate to the idea of a number, even more so a large number? On a recent visit to Auschwitz Birkenau, the guide for our group posed this exact question. He challenged the group to make the number ‘six million’ personal. Needless to say, we all struggled. He then said something else that, almost in a switch, helped us to begin to comprehend it.
Such a number is too big to take in, it is too large a number to visualise. Instead, we should try to think of a loved one. Just one single person. Maybe a parent, a sibling or perhaps a partner. The guide told us to close our eyes and think of that person and then think of another. Now with two people, think of every member of your immediate family. Now, from there, think of a friend and then a couple more friends, and then some more beyond that. We were then told to continue adding a person, a friend, a family member or even an acquaintance until, once again, we lose our focus of the number through a haze of faces. This really didn’t take long at all.
He said that individually we will never be able to comprehend such a number – this is a task too great for one person alone. Instead it can only be done together, as a people. He explained that the closest we can come to this individually is by thinking of our own immediate circles – of their faces – and know that each of these faces represents one of the souls brutally taken from this world.
Today is the international Holocaust Remembrance Day. This year, the theme for the day is ‘journeys’. I am here because of the brave and perilous journey my paternal grandfather took in order to escape Poland.
The Jewish people have survived against unimaginable odds, through thousands of years and against countless backdrops of persecution and oppression. However, with the help of the Almighty and because of the many journeys that they took, and the many personal sacrifices they made along the way, the Jewish People have survived. We are survivors.
My Zaida (Yiddish for grandfather), made great sacrifices at great personal costs and with great consequences that haunted him for many years after. However, as a man of great strength and heart, he took that journey and ultimately, it saved his life, brought him to England, it saw him meet my Grandmother and start a new family with the birth of my father and then my uncle. His journey continued through my father and mother, uncle and aunt, and now it continues through me, my sister and my two cousins. We are the legacy of his journey. We carry his journey on into the future.
As Jews, we are all connected through the ages. We all undergo a journey to ensure that the Jewish people continue and we all play a part in taking our collective story from the past to the future. For some generations, that journey is a hard and arduous task. For others, its path is less strenuous and less gruelling. And, of course, for some it is a journey full of joy and celebration. Thank G-d I have not faced the horrors that my Zaida suffered but while he is no longer with us, learning about his life and his journey is a constant source of fascination, guidance, strength and pride.
I love him and miss him dearly. I hope that he would be proud of us all, but more importantly, I hope he would be proud to see what his journey has produced, in spite of the hardships and against all the odds, and to see how his family is flourishing and taking his story through into future generations.
May the lives of all those who were lost in the Holocaust be a blessed memory and may the memories of all those who survived forever be a blessing to us all.
International Holocaust Memorial Day 2014 – 27 January 2014
For more information on HMD 2014, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NeqH4QCI60
Such a number is too big to take in, it is too large a number to visualise. Instead, we should try to think of a loved one. Just one single person. Maybe a parent, a sibling or perhaps a partner. The guide told us to close our eyes and think of that person and then think of another. Now with two people, think of every member of your immediate family. Now, from there, think of a friend and then a couple more friends, and then some more beyond that. We were then told to continue adding a person, a friend, a family member or even an acquaintance until, once again, we lose our focus of the number through a haze of faces. This really didn’t take long at all.
He said that individually we will never be able to comprehend such a number – this is a task too great for one person alone. Instead it can only be done together, as a people. He explained that the closest we can come to this individually is by thinking of our own immediate circles – of their faces – and know that each of these faces represents one of the souls brutally taken from this world.
Today is the international Holocaust Remembrance Day. This year, the theme for the day is ‘journeys’. I am here because of the brave and perilous journey my paternal grandfather took in order to escape Poland.
The Jewish people have survived against unimaginable odds, through thousands of years and against countless backdrops of persecution and oppression. However, with the help of the Almighty and because of the many journeys that they took, and the many personal sacrifices they made along the way, the Jewish People have survived. We are survivors.
My Zaida (Yiddish for grandfather), made great sacrifices at great personal costs and with great consequences that haunted him for many years after. However, as a man of great strength and heart, he took that journey and ultimately, it saved his life, brought him to England, it saw him meet my Grandmother and start a new family with the birth of my father and then my uncle. His journey continued through my father and mother, uncle and aunt, and now it continues through me, my sister and my two cousins. We are the legacy of his journey. We carry his journey on into the future.
As Jews, we are all connected through the ages. We all undergo a journey to ensure that the Jewish people continue and we all play a part in taking our collective story from the past to the future. For some generations, that journey is a hard and arduous task. For others, its path is less strenuous and less gruelling. And, of course, for some it is a journey full of joy and celebration. Thank G-d I have not faced the horrors that my Zaida suffered but while he is no longer with us, learning about his life and his journey is a constant source of fascination, guidance, strength and pride.
I love him and miss him dearly. I hope that he would be proud of us all, but more importantly, I hope he would be proud to see what his journey has produced, in spite of the hardships and against all the odds, and to see how his family is flourishing and taking his story through into future generations.
May the lives of all those who were lost in the Holocaust be a blessed memory and may the memories of all those who survived forever be a blessing to us all.
International Holocaust Memorial Day 2014 – 27 January 2014
For more information on HMD 2014, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NeqH4QCI60
These are a few photos from my recent Young Professionals Trip to Poland, and the Survivor, Dov Landau, who we had the great fortune to meet along the way.
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