Never Again

My brother sent me this in an e-mail and I had to share it:

In Memoriam – 63 YEARS LATER

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated with the German and Russian peoples looking the other way!

Now, more than ever, with Iraq, Iran, and others claiming the Holocaust to be ‘a myth,’ it’s imperative to make sure the world never forgets, because there are others who would like to do it again.

Okay, me again. This is very personal for me. My parents are Holocaust survivors.

My father lost everyone except for a brother who had left Poland for Canada before the real ugliness started. In fact, my mother was his second wife (they met in a DP (Displaced Persons) camp after the war); my brother and I were his third and fourth children, respectively. His wife and two little girls had been murdered by the Nazis in the concentration camps, along with his parents and siblings. My mother lost her entire family except for two of her sisters, an uncle, and a smattering of cousins. She, and maybe a couple of cousins in Belgium are all that are now left of those that survived those atrocities.

I heard on the news yesterday that there are only about 80,000 survivors left. My mother is 89. More of her friends – contemporaries – are leaving us every year. The ones who are left were mere children at the time, but you do the math. It’s just a matter of time.

After many years of urging Mom to get involved with any of the several Holocaust historic preservation projects that are active down here, she finally allowed some social worker at the Jewish Community Center in her neighborhood to talk her into working with college students who are taking a Holocaust Studies course. She’s enjoying the hell out of it – talking with “her students”, sharing her experiences and encouraging young women as they pursue their futures. Sure. Listen to strangers, not your own daughter. Um, sorry – pushed one of my own buttons.

Anyway, Mom’s doing her part to pass it on, to keep the memories alive. But, soon it will be left to us. We, “The Second Generation”, must be the watchmen, keeping the legacy alive and being the voices of those who perished, against those who would deny and then repeat history. To which we say:

Never Again.