Holocaust Remembrance Day

The Yad Vashem memorial complex in Jerusalem
When I read that today was "International Holocaust Remembrance Day," I had a flood of emotions and memories return.
I learned the facts about the Holocaust in my youth, like most people; but didn't really grasp the magnitude of it until I was in Israel when I was 22. While in Jerusalem, I visited "Yad Vashem," the World Holocaust Remembrance Center - a large memorial complex dedicated to preserving the memory of the events of the Nazi massacres during World War II, and to ensure future genocides do not occur. I'd never had an experience like that in my life. It was the most solemn, reverent, but yet disturbing thing I'd ever experienced. For the first time, I truly grasped the meaning of what happened to an entire people during World War II - 6 million deaths, and countless more lives shattered, a whole culture plundered and humiliated. I remember being subdued for days afterward as I processed the experience.

Plaque posted at Dachau, a reminder that never should such a Holocaust
be allowed to happen, in Hebrew, French, English, German, and Russian.

After finishing my visit in Israel, I made my way to Europe and visited the Dachau concentration camp near Munich, Germany. Again I was overwhelmed with the magnitude of the events. The camp is maintained by the German people as a memorial and a reminder. The slogan "Never Again" is really the theme of the site - a reminder to the German nation, and to the world, that such a horrible tragedy must never be repeated.

One of the many chilling Holocaust photos, showing prisoners in a concentration camp.
Survivor and author Elie Wiesel is on the second row, the face just visible behind the back post.
Since then I've continued to learn more about World War II. I read scores of books, starting with "Night" by Elie Wiesel and "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl, then more in-depth histories. It still disturbs me deeply whenever I think about the depths of cruelty and arrogance reflected in the Nazis' approach to dominance.
So I join the chorus pleading that "Never Again" will we forget that we are all brothers, children of the same God; that whatever cultural or social or political or religious things may differentiate or divide us, they are far less significant than the myriad of things that we have in common to unite us. And so I #GiveThanks for the power of memories to bring about good, as we allow them to inspire us to do better.

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