Today is Yom HaShoah, a day to remember and honor the lives of all those who were killed in the Holocaust. The day is being observed mainly in Israel and the United States (the rest of the world observes International Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27).
A Holocaust museum opened up in the Palestinian village of Na’alin. “If leaders on both sides know and remember what Hitler did, maybe we’ll have peace,” Ibrahim Amira, a Na’alin resident and one of the leaders of the fight against the fence told Ynet.
At Yad Vashem, seven candles were lit by survivors who were children during the Holocaust, and were left without any family. They include a pair of twins who were subjected to Dr. Mengele’s human experiments. (Ynet)
Survivor Elisabeth Mann says she doesn’t think victims of the Holocaust should be looking for revenge in their pursuit of Nazi war criminals. “I cannot imagine that that person has a soul or conscience or heart. … He simply wouldn’t feel it. … What kind of punishment could you give to a person like that?” (CNN)
The brand new Illinois Holocaust Museum opened on Sunday, focusing on stories of survivors who live in and around the Chicago suburb of Skokie. (NYTimes)
Yad Vashem opens a new exhibit focusing on killing fields where whole towns were massacred. The head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research said, “In many cases, locals played a key role in the murders, probably by a ratio of 10 locals to every one German. We are trying to understand the man who played soccer with his Jewish neighbor one day and turned to kill him the next. This provides material for research on genocide elsewhere, like in Africa.†(NYTimes)
Survivors weren’t supermen and superwomen, they survived because of intelligence, flexibility and courage, and went on to live lives of happiness and prosperity against the odds of trauma and depression stacked against them. (Huffington Post)
