Remembering the Children of the Holocaust

SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 2018, IS INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY. It occurred to me that waiting to remind everyone about the commemoration on Saturday would mean that you would miss the chance to actually participate in a ceremony or event near you. So, today I want to give you a list of International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremonies and activities scattered around the world, so that you can pick one to participate in or follow online. There are many others -- do some googling. • • • THE UNITED NATIONS ACTIVITIES. “Holocaust Remembrance and Education : Our Shared Responsibility” is the theme of the UN's Holocaust commemoration activities for 2018. The memorial ceremony on January 31 will highlight this theme that focuses on the universal dimension of the Holocaust and encourages education on this tragedy so that future generations will firmly reject all forms of racism, violence and anti-Semitism. The Holocaust was a defining point in history and its lessons have much to teach about the danger of extremism and the prevention of genocide today. The United Nations Holocaust Memorial Ceremony Wednesday, January 31, 2018, at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York City. The time is 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. You can contact < HolocaustRemembrance@un.org > or log onto < http://www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance/2018/calendar2018.html > for more information and to register to attend. The ceremony will be hosted by Alison Smale, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications. United Nations Secretary-General, President of the seventy-second session of the General Assembly, Representatives of the United States, Israel and Germany will deliver remarks. Judge Thomas Buergenthal, a Holocaust survivor who is a retired Judge of the International Court of Justice and Professor at George Washington University Law School, will serve as a keynote speaker. Eva Lavi, a Holocaust survivor, will share her testimony. The ceremony will include musical elements by the United Nations Staff Recreation Council Singers and the United Nations Staff Recreation Council Chamber Music Society. Cantor Joseph Malovany of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, will recite the memorial prayers. • There is also a new educational poster set -- “The Butterfly Project: Remembering the Children of theHolocaust.” The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Program has partnered with the Houston Holocaust Museum in Texas to produce a set of 14 posters based on the Museum's exhibition "The Butterfly Project : Remembering the Children of the Holocaust." The posters will be displayed by the global network of United Nations information centers. The exhibition outlines the impact of the Holocaust on children, and showcases an educational initiative called "The Butterfly Project" developed by the Houston Holocaust Museum Houston to teach this history to young people, encourage them to remember the 1.5 million children who perished and to stand up against hatred and prejudice. The posters will be available in all six United Nations official languages. The butterfly image that commemmorates the children of the Holocaust is light teal blue and peach, with the words "Remembering the Children of the Holocaust" written above it. • • • THE HOUSTON HOLOCAUST MUSEUM COMMEMORATION. The University of Houston's Houston Public Media "Butterfly Project" honoring the 1.5 million children of the Holocaust, which originated in Houston, went on display at UN Headauqrters in New York City on Monday, January 22. Dr. Kelly Zúñiga of Holocaust Museum Houston has explained that the 20-year-long art project is based on a poem by a child imprisoned at a concentration camp. The child was Pavel Friedman, who was a prisoner at the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp. Here is his poem : "The Butterfly / The last, the very last, / So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow. / Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing against a white stone… / Such, such a yellow / Is carried lightly ‘way up high. / It went away I'm sure because it wished to kiss the world goodbye. / For seven weeks I've lived in here, / Penned up inside this ghetto / But I have found my people here. / The dandelions call to me / And the white chestnut candles in the court. / Only I never saw another butterfly. / That butterfly was the last one. / Butterflies don't live in here, / In the ghetto. __Pavel Friedmann 4.6.1942." The poem is preserved in typewritten copy on thin paper in the collection of poetry by Pavel Friedmann, which was donated to the National Jewish Museum during its documentation campaign. It is dated June 4, 1942 in the left corner. Pavel Friedmann was born January 7, 1921, in Prague and deported to Terezín, a Nazi concentration camp, on April 26, 1942. He died in Oswiecim* (Auschwitz) on September 29, 1944. • • • THE UN GENEVA COMMEMORATION. In 2005, the UN General Assembly adopted by consensus a resolution (A/RES/60/7) condemning "without reserve" all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief, whenever they occur. The resolution designated January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp, as the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. To mark this day in 2108, the International Community gathered in Geneva will commemorate the victims of the Holocaust with a series of events centered on Anne Frank's family story. Eva Schloss, Holocaust survivor and step-daughter of Otto Frank -- Anne Frank's father -- will share her testimony and meet with students to pass on to the next generation ​her story and that of the 6 million Jews murdered during the Holocaust. The Official Ceremony at the United Nations Office at Geneva will also feature a musical performance from former winners of the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition​. The date of the Official Ceremony is Monday, January 29, from 17:00 to 19:00 (5 p.m. to 7 p.m.) in the Assembly Hall, Palais des Nations, Geneva. Registration is mandatory and can be done at < HolocaustRemembranceCeremony@gmail.com​ >. The Ceremony was organized by the United Nations Office at Geneva, with the support of the Permanent Missions of Israel and the United States​. • The CINE-ONU will also screen the movie "No Asylum." The screening will be on Sunday, January 28, at 11:00 (11 a.m.) at the Cinema Cinerama Empire Rue de Carouge 72, 1205 Genève. Entrance is free but you should contact < cineONU@unog.ch > beforehand to download an invitation. The film will be followed by a discussion with Ms. Eva Schloss, Otto Frank's step-daughter, and Ms. Paula Fouce, Director of the documentary.​ • The UN Geneva will also have an Exhibition "Let Me Be Myself," by the Anne Frank House. It features the life of Anne Frank, from her birth in 1929 up to her death in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, including a replica of her diary and a scale model of her hiding place. The Exhibition is from January 29 to February 9, 2018, at Pas Perdus Hall, Palais des Nations, Geneva. Registration is mandatory and can be done at < HolocaustRemembranceCeremony@gmail.com​ >. The Exhibition was organized by the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations, together with the Swiss Chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. • There will be activities to commemorate the Holocaust at many UN sites around the world and you can contact the one nearest you for details. • • • MILAN COMMEMORATION. < wheremilan.com > gives details about Milan and other Italian commemorations. On January 27, 2018, both the city of Milan and the whole Italy commemorate the victims of the Holocaust occurred during World War II. It’s the 15th anniversary of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and to the end of the Shoah, and the city local municipalities organise ceremonies, public initiatives, meetings, lessons and unique chances for reflection, as well as special visits to museums and memorials. In Italy, the Italian Republic established the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, with a law introduced on July 20, 2000, featuring in its first article January 27 as a symbolic date to remember the Shoah, racial laws, the persecution of Italian Jew citizens, of mentally and physically disabled people, and of homosexual men, who were imprisoned and deported. In this day, Italians also celebrate those who sacrificed their lives to save or protect those people. If you are in Milan during the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, visiting the Shoah Memorial could be a good way to join in remembering the Shoah in Milan through historical documents, pictures and objects in a one-of-a-kind journey throughout history. Guided tours carried out by volunteer guides are available. Access to the Memorial is free of charge, though a minimum donation of 10 euros per person is suggested to support the Shoah Memorial of Milan to help in completing the Memorial. If you are not going to be in Milan, wou can support the Memorial building fund by making a credit transfer to: Fondazione Memoriale della Shoah di Milano ONLUS, account at Banca Prossima; IBAN: IT87L0335901600100000119090. Write on the payment memo if you do not want your name listed among the contributors to the Memorial you can also contribute by Paypal or credit card at < www.memorialeshoah.it >. • Events on International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018 in Milan include a Commemorative concert at Milan’s Conservatorio G. Verdi, on 27 January at 8.30 p.m. with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Paul Hindemith and Ilse Weber played by by students of Milan’s conservatory. Entry is free. You can learn more on this event (in Italian only) and about the screening of the film/documentary with witnesses by sons of those who have survived the Shoah. Log on and download entry tickets at : < http://www.wheremilan.com/events/international-holocaust-remembrance-day-2018/ > • • • BRITISH COMMEMORATIONS. The UK Mirror published an article explaining that every year in January Holocaust Memorial Day is held to remember the six million Jews brutally killed during World War II : "Hitler's genocide, also known as Shoah in Hebrew, was carried out between 1941 and 1945 as war raged across Europe. The International Holocaust Remembrance Day is held each year on January 27 because it was the date of the liberation of Auschwitz, a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps in modern-day Poland on January 27, 1945. Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by the Soviets, nearly eight months before the war officially ended. By the time they arrived though, many of the inhabitants had been sent out on a death march, but the Soviets found 7,000 people sick and dying people who remained at the camp. In the five years it was open, an estimated 1.1 million people were killed at the Auschwitz concentration camp, around 90% of whom were Jewish. The remainder were a mix of nationalities including Romany people, Soviets and Polish. One in six of the Jews killed in the war died at Auschwitz as part of Hitler's Final Solution. Between 1942 and 1945 Jewish people were brought into the camp from across Europe by train and then massacred in gas chambers." Holocaust Memorial Day began in the UK 2001, and has been marked every year on the same date since. Each year has a theme, including "Remembering genocides: lessons for the future" and "One person can make a difference." There is a strong focus on trying to ensure that mankind doesn't repeat the horrific mistakes of its past by learning from the Holocaust. The 2018 UK theme is "The power of words," the idea being words can make a difference - both for good and evil. If you are in the UK, you can get involved in one of the dozens of events and exhibitions held to mark the Holocaust on January 27 across the UK. Check local online listings or a newspaper in your area for regional events or visit the Holocaust Memorial Day Twitter profile at < @HMD_UK > < with the hashtag being used this year -- #HMD2018. • One particularly beautiful commemoration is held at York Minster’s historic Chapter House, where there will be the lighting of 600 candles in the shape of a Star of David -- the cathedral’s poignant act of commemoration for Holocaust Memorial Day. The York Minster commemoration this year is on Wednesday, January 24. it will start with a dedicated Evensong service followed by a procession to the Chapter House for the lighting of the 600 candles which will be set out on the floor to form the Star of David. Representatives from the Jewish community, refugee support groups, interfaith groups and community organizations will be present for the event which will include readings, music and prayers, interspersed with silence for quiet reflection. Evensong begins at 5:15 p.m. and the Chapter House service begins at 6:00 p.m. Entry is via the South Doors. Log onto the site for more information : < https://yorkminster.org/whats-on/2018/01/24/holocaust-memorial-day-services.html >. • • • AUSTRALIA COMMEMORATION. Religions for Peace -- Australia ( http://religionsforpeaceaustralia.org.au/2018/01/23/un-international-holocaust-remembrance-day-2018/ ) will hold a Commemoration at the Glen Eira Town Hall, Caulfield, on the evening of Sunday, 28 January. The commemoration, organized by the Jewish Holocaust Centre and the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, accords with the UN General Assembly 2005 resolution proclaiming January 27 as the day in 1945 on which Auschwitz was liberated, as the annual international Holocaust Remembrance Day. The event will be held at the City of Glen Eira Town Hall, Corner of Glen Eira & Hawthorn Roads, Caulfield South. The Event is free but reservations are required and can be made at PH 9528 1985 or < admin@jhc.org.au >. Individuals and groups of Australia's faith community are also welcome. • • • EUROM COMMEMORATION IN BARCELONA. European Observatory on Memories (EUROM) at the University of Barcelona will present from January 23 to 25 participative graffiti in remembrance of the deportees to Nazi Camps. EUROM says that based on the mix of iconic, artistic, testimonial, documentary, and evocative elements, the main concern of this activity is the transmission of the memory of the Holocaust to the new generations, as well as dignifying, honoring and commemorating the victims. The mural project was developed by the urban artist Roc Blackblock in collaboration with 12 students of the artistic baccalaureate of the Institut Moises Broggi. It was directed by Jordi Guixé and curated by Nuria Ricart, professor of Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona. Roc Blackblock, an urban artist based in Barcelona, started painting graffiti in 1999, and since 2012 has specialised in stencils. As an active member of social movements, street art has been his way of participating. Through different media, he is becoming best known by the series of grafittis in remembrance of the Spanish Civil War. The commemoration will take place at the Plaça del Rei. • On January 24, there will be the keynote speech by Piotr Cywiński, director of the Museum and Memorial Auschwitz-Birkenau, titled "Auschwitz: between remembrance and responsibility." A doctor of humanities and medieval historian, Cywiński is director of the Museum and Memorial Auschwitz-Birkenau, and chairman and co-founder of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. He is also a member of the International Auschwitz Council of the Museum and Memorial Auschwitz-Birkenau and was deputy chairman of the Council of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust (2005-2014 ). Since 2010, Cywińskii has been a member of the Council for the Protection of Memory of Combat and Martyrdom (ROPWiM) and since 2009 has been a member of the Board of Museums at the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. His Keynote speech will take place at the Museu d’Història de Barcelona (MUHBA), Sala Martí l’Humà plaça del Rei, s/n at 19h (7 p.m.). Attendance is free, but previous registration is required. • Log on to the site for more information and to register for free to attend the Barcelona events : < http://europeanmemories.net/activities/international-day-commemoration-memory-victims-holocaust-barcelona/ > . • • • MONTREAL COMMEMORATION. The Montreal Holocaust Museum will honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jnauary 27. Yopu are welcome to join in at the Museum to learn more about the genocide of the Jews during World War II. Admission to the Museum is free from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be a young writers workshop with Holocaust Survivors at 2 p.m. Holocaust survivors are people of the Jewish religion or culture who survived Nazi persecution during the Second World War. They have various experiences associated with the Nazis’ rise to power in 1933, and the establishment of a state policy of systematic persecution. Some survived ghettos, forced labour, concentration camps and death camps (which is extremely rare). Others survived by hiding; pretending to be a Christian with false documents; living and fighting as a partisan (Jewish Resistance); escaping to Russia; fleeing Germany or Austria between 1933 and 1939 to “neutral” countries or to the United Kingdom, America and Palestine. Log onto the Montreal site at < http://museeholocauste.ca/en/news-and-events/holocaust-remembrance-day/ >. • • • SINGAPORE COMMEMORATION. < allevents.in > reports that the International Holocaust Day in Singapore to commemorate all those who perished and survived through this horrible ordeal will feature remembering, because that is how that we educate tomorrows' people and ensure these tragedies never occur again. There are several commemorative events in Singapore -- Film Screening at The Projector -- Saturday, January 20, 2018, 8 p.m. of the film "Son of Saul." / Saturday, January 27, 2018, 5 p.m. of the film "Watchers of the Sky." / Sunday, January 28, 2018, 5 p.m. of the film "Denial." • Film Screening at Jurong Regional Library -- Friday, February 2, 2018, 4 p.m. of the film "Carl Lutz - The Hidden Hero." / Monday, February 5, 2018, 6 p.m. of the film "The Boat is Full." • Log onto the site for Singapore events at < https://allevents.in/singapore/international-holocaust-remembrance-day-2018/566514120373994 >. • • • THE AUSCHWITZ COMMEMORATION. The French language Israeli TV outlet i24 TV has announced the that the World Jewish Congress has launched the #WeRemember Holocaust commemoration campaign. Courtesy of the WJC, the Campaign will culminate with projection of #WeRemember photos, survivor testimonies on grounds of Auschwitz. The World Jewish Congress (WJC), an international umbrella organization representing over 100 Jewish communities around the world, on Sunday launched its annual “We Remember” initiative commemorating the Holocaust and combating anti-Semitism in the lead-up to International Holocaust Remembrance Day later this month.The campaign aims to reach millions of people around the world by inviting participants to photograph themselves holding a “We Remember” sign and sharing it across social media platforms using the hashtag #WeRemember to spread the message that “Never Again must mean Never Again.” WJC President Ronald S. Lauder issued a statement saying : "Around the world today, anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, and hatred of others continue to rear their ugly heads. We must remember because there are fewer and fewer survivors among us, and within just a few decades, all will have passed. It is now the responsibility of the younger generation to teach their friends about the horrors of hatred, and to spread the message that never again must mean never again.” Last year’s “We Remember” campaign reached 250 million people, WJC said, with heads of state and celebrities such as Austrian Chancellor (then foreign minister) Sebastian Kurz, US Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, famed sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin joining millions of people around the world taking part in the initiative. Lauder said : “In today’s digital age, social media is the only tool that can allow us to connect the world together with this message. The initiative far exceeded our expectations and became more than just a campaign. It became a worldwide grassroots movement, of real people and real stories, shared from the heart.” The campaign will run through January 7 to 27, when the world will mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and will culminate with a live projection of all participant #WeRemember photos along with interviews with Holocaust survivors, and messages of remembrance from public figures on the grounds of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. • Log onto the i24 TV News site for more information on participating online : < http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/164649-180108-world-jewish-congress-launches-weremember-holocaust-commemoration-campaign >. • • • FRENCH COMMEMORATION. While France commemorates the events of July 16, 1942, when more than 13,000 Parisian Jews were rounded up with the aid of French Police and held in crowded and unsanitary conditions inside the Velodrome d'Hiver as its National Day of Holocaust Remembrance, the European Parliament at Strassbourg, France, in partnership with the European Jewish Congress, will host its annual International Holocaust Commemoration Day Ceremony on Wednesday, January 24, 2018, at 12:00 CET. Live Streaming will be available at the EJC website. Social media coverage will be posted under #IHCD18. • • • AMERICAN COMMEMORATION. On January 26 at 11 a.m. ET, the Holocaust Museum in Washington will host a commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The program will feature remarks from the Honorable David O'Sullivan, Ambassador of the European Union to the United States, and a Holocaust survivor, musical selections, as well as a candle-lighting ceremony and victims’ names reading. Join live at < ushmm.org/watch >. • • • DEAR READERS, there will be commemorative events for International Holocaust Remembrance Day all over the world. Although I couldn't find references, there are usually commemorations in Taiwan and India. Call your local newspaper, visit a local TV website, or simply google "International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018" for information about your area. Take your children, your grandchildren, your family, your friends to a commemoration. The time is drawing near when the Holocaust will slip from "present witness" to "past memory." So, put aside the images your smartphone and tablet, turn off your TV, and go out and see for yourself what a horror the Holocaust was. Explain it to those who were not yet born when it happened. "Never Again" is the responsibility of each of us, and it can only be fulfilled through knowledge and thoughtful remembrance. • Let's end today's blog with another poem by a child of the Holocaust. This one is preserved in a copy turned over to the State Jewish Museum in Prague by Dr. R. Feder in 1955. It is signed at the bottom, "12 year old Eva Picková from Nymburk." Eva Picková was born in Nymburk on May 15, 1929, deported to Terezín Nazi concentration camp on April 16, 1942, and perished in Oswiecim (Auschwitz) on December 18, 1943. Eva's poem is called "Fear" : Today the ghetto knows a different fear, / Close in its grip, Death wields an icy scythe./ An evil sickness spreads a terror in its wake, / The victims of its shadow weep and writhe. / Today a father's heartbeat tells his fright / And mothers bend their heads into their hands. / Now children choke and die with typhus here, / A bitter tax is taken from their bands. / My heart still beats inside my breast / While friends depart for other worlds. / Perhaps it's better -- who can say? -- / Than watching this, to die today? / No, no, my God, we want to live! / Not watch our numbers melt away. / We want to have a better world, / We want to work -- we must not die!" • NEVER AGAIN !