Holocaust Memorial Day

התייחדות- Commemoration

אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים El Male Rachamim

"אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים שׁוֹכֵן בַּמְּרוֹמִים, הַמְצֵא מְנוּחָה נְכוֹנָה עַל כַּנְפֵי הַשְּׁכִינָה, בְּמַעֲלוֹת קְדוֹשִׁים וּטְהוֹרִים כְּזוֹהַר הָרָקִיע מַזְהִירִים אֶת כָּל הַנְּשָׁמוֹת שֶׁל שֵׁשֶׁת מִילְיוֹנִי הַיְּהוּדִים, חַלְלֵי הַשּׁוֹאָה בּאֵירוֹפָּה, שֶׁנֶּהֶרְגוּ, שֶׁנִּשְׁחֲטוּ, שֶׁנִּשְׂפוּ וְשֶׁנִּסְפּוּ עַל קִדּוּשׁ הַשֵׁם, בִּידֵי הַמְרַצְּחִים הַגֶּרְמָנִים וְעוֹזְרֵיהֶם מִשְּׁאָר הָעַמִּים. לָכֵן בַּעַל הָרַחֲמִים יַסְתִּירֵם בְּסֵתֶר כְּנָפָיו לְעוֹלָמִים, וְיִצְרוֹר בִּצְרוֹר הַחַיִּים אֶת נִשְׁמוֹתֵיהֶם, ה' הוּא נַחֲלָתָם, בְּגַן עֵדֶן תְּהֵא מְנוּחָתָם, וְיַעֶמְדוּ לְגוֹרָלָם לְקֵץ הַיָּמִין, וְנֹאמַר אָמֵן".

יִזְכּוֹר Yizkor

"יִזְכּוֹר אֱלוֹהִים אֶת נִשְׁמוֹת אֲחֵינוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, חַלְלֵי הַשּׁוֹאָה וְגִבּוֹרֶיהָ, נִשְׁמוֹת שֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹת רְבָבוֹת אַלְפֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, שֶׁהוּמְתוּ וְשֶׁנֶּהֶרְגוּ וְשֶׁנֶּחְנְקוּ וְשֶׁנִּקְבְּרוּ חַיִּים, וְאֶת קְהִילּוֹת הַקּוֹדֶשׁ שֶׁנֶּחְרְבוּ עַל קְדוּשַׁת הַשֵּׁם. יִזְכּוֹר אֱלוֹהִים אֶת עֲקֵדָתָם עִם עֲקֵדַת שְׁאָר קְדוֹשֵׁי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְגִבּוֹרָיו מִימֵי עוֹלָם וְיִצְרוֹר בִּצְרוֹר הַחַיִּים אֶת נִשְׁמָתָם. הַנֶּאֱהָבִים וְהַנְּעִימִים בְּחַיֵּיהֶם וּבְמוֹתָם לֹא נִפְרָדוּ. יָנוּחוּ בְּשָׁלוֹם עַל מִשְׁכָּבוֹתָם וְנֹאמַר אָמֵן.

Please rise for a minute of silence.

Now, we will light candles to commemorate the six million souls who were lost in the Holocaust.

Display- last thought of a little girl in the hell of Auschwitz

When the boxcar door opened, I opened my own eyes. From the warmth of Mama’s hug, we entered the cold world of Auschwitz. I look around me with big blue eyes, and my fat cheeks that everyone loved to pinch, turn bright red. The men in pajamas help us get down out of the car. My head is covered well with the hat that Grandma Pearl knitted me. Grandma didn’t arrive with us on the train. She and Grandpa went to a place called Treblinka. Mama says they are happy; that it’s good for them there. Aunt Sarah and Uncle Shlomo also went with them.

        I don’t understand why the men in green are yelling all the time. It frightens my little brother, Lazar. He’s only a year old and he has to sleep a lot. The men in green with the dogs take Papa to a different side, away from us. Mama, Lazar’le and I are left by ourselves. Papa waves and throws us a kiss.

        “I love you!” he calls out loud, and he gets a slap from the big Uncle with the gun. Come back quickly, Papa; don’t leave us alone! Am I glad I brought Mishka with me! --the doll Papa gave last year when I turned five…

        It’s hot in this long hallway which we’ve entered. They help us get undressed. Mama puts my dress on the bench and picks up me and little Lazar’le. “Where are we going, Mama?”    “To a hot shower,” she whispers to me.

        Maybe after the shower I will get a new dress, a nicer one. Maybe a white one like Mishka’s. Lazar cries when they push him into the small room with the strange ceiling. It’s stuffy in here, there’s no air, and the dark is scary. I don’t want to be here! I want Papa!

And yet the world continues on…

And yet the world continues on. Didn’t the world hear the heart-wrenching cries of the pure and innocent children, the great and holy Rabbis, the millions upon millions of souls who were murdered for their terrible crime of being Jewish?!

Yet life continued on, and people went through their days, only minutes from where the atrocities were being committed, as if it did not matter to them at all…. It is truly a wonder how life can go on despite the burden of such a multitude of horrific cries!

Kol BiRamamh Nishmah- A Voice is Heard on High

“A voice is heard on high….Mother Rachel crying for her children, refusing to be comforted. Don’t cry, Mother Rachel! Dry your tears!”

Is it possible to be comforted?! Can one stop crying, stop the tears?!? Where is the intellect that overpowers those emotions of pain, anger and horror? The heart cries out with suffering, “Master of the World, why? Why do you allow the Wicked to triumph? How can evil out-do good?”

Yizkor

Like the others, Helena prepared herself for Yom Kippur. Dressed in white, with a white silk scarf around her head, she stands on her second floor porch, looking at the shul across the street.

“When is Yizkor?” she calls down to those gathered outside. “I have some business to do with G-d and with those who are gone.”

It seems as if she sets up a messenger ahead of time, for there’s always a young child who calls up to her when it’s time for Yizkor. In the blink of an eye, she vanishes from the porch and reappears in front of the Aron Kodesh, the Holy Ark. Suddenly, silence reigns in the room.

The men, each wrapped in a tallit, are shocked. “She’s in the men’s section!”

They try to explain to her where the ladies’ section is located, but she just straightens herself up and announces, “This is no mistake! I’m in the right place.”

She whips herself around to face the Aron Kodesh and her clear words thunder through the shul:

“With the permission of the community, I, Helena, a representative of an entire family destroyed, stand before My Holy Master today, fulfilling a vow which I made, fulfilling a role I did not choose. I am commemorating the lost souls, and only You know why specifically I was chosen.”

“I stand here in their stead. If they were here, they surely would have stood before the Holy Ark, and therefore, here am I.”

The Forest of Tears

A tear,

A single tear,

Rolls in the forest,

A forest so green.

Grass grows there, trees,

And even a few flowers.

The tear rolls,

And after it, another tear.

And I ask “How?”

How can grass, trees and flowers

Grow and bloom there?

How?!?

But there is no answer.

The tear rolls,

And after it roll many tears.

So how can there still be growth?

The growth comes from the water of the tears.

With every tear,

Another blade of grass, another tree, another flower,

And even a wild strawberry.

The tear rolls,

And after it another one,

And then a few more tears,

Until I cannot stop them flowing.

And the tears continue…

I ask myself, where are they headed?

They are flowing to the Children’s Forest,

The Forest of Tears.

יתגדל- אוֹשׁוִויץ (מחנה השמדה)

יתקדש- מַיְדַנֵק (מחנה השמדה)

שמי רבא- טְרָבְּלִינְקָה (מחנה השמדה)

אמן- בוכנוואלד (מחנה ריכוז)

יתגדל- מאוטהאוזן (מחנה ריכוז)

ויתקדש- פלאשוב (מחנה ריכוז)

שמי רבא- סוֹבִיבוֹר (מחנה השמדה)

אמן- חָלְמֶנוֹ (מחנה השמדה)

יתגדל- נוינגמה (מחנה ריכוז)

ויתקדש- טרזיינשטט (גטו)

שמי רבא- וַורְשָׁה (גטו)

אמן- וִילְנָה (גטו)

יתגדל- בֶּרְגֶן בּלְזן (מחנה ריכוז)

ויתקדש- ינובסקה (מחנה עבודה)

שמי רבא, אמן

I Stand Here Now

I stand here now, fifty years behind me, davening Mincha,

When suddenly it seems the words are caught in my throat.

“Ashrei Yoshvei Vaitecha, Ashrei Ha’am She’chachah Lo”

“Fortunate are those who Dwell in Your House,

Fortunate is the Nation that such is to him.”

Fortunate is the Nation that such is to him?!?

A Nation who was brought to the slaughter by Nazi hands?!?

A nation who was denigrated, despised and tortured?!?

A nation whose worldly possessions were all plundered?!?

Clothes, Shoes, Accessories,

Piles and piles of them in this terrible place!

A nation whose blood cries out from the very earth, 

For many hundreds of years,

And even when in his own land, he is never left in peace,

There, too, they chase him,

In his own home, his children are kidnapped….

Fortunate is the Nation that such is to him?!?

There is only one answer, it keeps returning to me:

“Ashrei ha’am she’HaShem  Elokuv”

Fortunate is the Nation Whose G-d is the Almighty!

We need strong faith to pick up our heads, to continue on,

To feel the pain, to cry, and to continue on,

To remember the six million and to continue on,

And to continue on – because that’s the only way.

Saba Yisroel’s Memoirs

Not once in my life have I ever questioned G-d. I never came to Him with complaints, “What have you done!” I always just told myself, “He knows what He wants; I do not know His intentions.”

When the Jews left Egypt, they too did not know what the purpose of their Exodus was; they too did not want to leave. But those who read the Torah carefully understand that if there had been no troubles for them in Egypt, they never would have wanted to leave, and they never would have gone into the barren desert. Even today, I cannot understand how they were able to leave Egypt and travel for forty years in the desert.

I don’t know if the State of Israel is important for the world, but for the Jewish Nation it is a symbol.

We mention this in davening. Many prayers are personal, yet there are many communal prayers as well.

When I was a child, I learned all the Torah stories. I recognized all the places in the Land of Israel. Even in the concentration camps, I always prayed in my heart. I prayed my own private prayers, made my own private requests, and some of them were fulfilled….Proof is, I’m alive!

In the camps, I always had a choice, and I always chose the right option, as it says, “And you should choose life.” I have no reason to come with complaints, when I look at my wife, my daughters, and my grandchildren. I can only praise the Almighty, for I have truly received the greatest blessings from Him in every circumstance. So how can I doubt Him even for a moment? Even in the camps, with all the suffering, I kept my faith in G-d strong, and until the final moment I never wavered. Just like our forefather Jacob, when he left his parents’ home, and he promised that if the Almighty returned him in health to his home, then he would donate a tenth of his possessions. I too, always promised G-d similarly.

I have no complaints. I have received more than I have asked for. Everything I have is a gift.

My Saba Yisroel passed away after a difficult illness, about ten years ago, at the age of seventy. As his granddaughter, I too have learned to acknowledge and appreciate all that I have. I hope that I will never have to go through the terrible tragedies which he and the Jews of Europe went through over sixty years ago.

An Excerpt from the Israeli Declaration of Independence

“…the Holocaust that befell the Jewish Nation in the last era, during which millions of European Jews were sent to the slaughter, proved once again the necessity for a solution to the problem of the Jewish Nation, devoid of independence and a homeland. The rebirth of the Jewish Homeland in Eretz Yisroel, which will open its doors wide to each and every Jew, will grant the Jewish Nation an equal standing amongst the nations of the world….”

(An Excerpt from the Israeli Declaration of Independence, the fifth of Iyar, 5708 [1948])

Summary and Closing Remarks by Rabbi Malka

Slideshow “From Holocaust to Rebirth”

“Hatikvah”

“Ani Ma’amin”

Event End