H is for Holocaust and Hope
6 million...that's how many Jews were killed during the Holocaust. I know I've heard that number somewhere before in history and documentaries - but it's still a shocking number to think about...SIX MILLION.
Wow...we just attended the Anti-Defamation League's 31st Annual Holocaust Remembrance Program at Boettcher Concert hall here in Denver...and, I'm utterly speechless. That was probably one of the most emotional and inspiring events I've witnessed in a long time. The Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1913 "to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all." April 15-22 2012 was proclaimed Holocaust Remembrance week in Colorado. The event we attended tonight featured Ela Weissberger, a survivor of the Holocaust. Her story started at the age of 11, when she was sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslavokia, where the Germans sent many artists, musicians, writers and actors. She spent the next 3 and a half years there where she participated in 55 performances of Brundibar, a children's opera written by fellow internee Hans Krasa. She spoke of this time in her life, highlighting the horrors she experienced as a young girl, before she and her sister were rescued by an uncle who wasn't Jewish. Unbeknownst to the Germans, the opera was a satire of Hitler. Later during this evening, she performed one of the songs from the opera with children from a Jewish Day school in Denver.
Her story left me moved, and emotional. I mentioned in my blog yesterday about grace - this woman was the embodiment - to endure such atrocities, and come through it, is nothing short of a miracle of the human spirit. It was incredibly inspirational. I'm a huge music fan, at one point after the invocation, a cantor from a synagogue came up to the podium to sing a song in Hebrew. I have no idea what the song was called, nor did I understand a word he was singing - but I have rarely heard something so superbly powerful and moving (I know I keep using that word, but it's the only one that seems to fit). His voice was incredible, he was not a young man, if I had to guess, perhaps in his 60's - but his voice was so strong and clear. What struck me was the emotion his voice conveyed; you could hear the sorrow and anguish, hope and love as his voice rose, and dipped - almost as if the notes were carried by a soaring bird - ahhh it made me incredibly teary eyed - those notes, those dynamics, literally pierced my heart.
During the Governor's speech, he mentioned a Hebrew phrase - Tikkun olam - which means "to repair the world". It was such a fitting description of our world today. The atrocities that still occur everywhere, that it's not okay to turn a blind eye to injustices, to use public policy to systematically wipe out an entire population. Our world is always going to be in a state of disrepair - as long as racism, anti-semitism, misogyny and homophobia exists. We know what needs to happen, it's a matter of knowing for yourself, when the time comes, will you be able to step up and act...?
6 million - that's a number - not a statistic. 6 million living, breathing, men, women and children, who felt the sun on their faces, loved, worshipped, lived - gone. Only because they were Jewish. We can never forget that number.
Wow...we just attended the Anti-Defamation League's 31st Annual Holocaust Remembrance Program at Boettcher Concert hall here in Denver...and, I'm utterly speechless. That was probably one of the most emotional and inspiring events I've witnessed in a long time. The Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1913 "to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all." April 15-22 2012 was proclaimed Holocaust Remembrance week in Colorado. The event we attended tonight featured Ela Weissberger, a survivor of the Holocaust. Her story started at the age of 11, when she was sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslavokia, where the Germans sent many artists, musicians, writers and actors. She spent the next 3 and a half years there where she participated in 55 performances of Brundibar, a children's opera written by fellow internee Hans Krasa. She spoke of this time in her life, highlighting the horrors she experienced as a young girl, before she and her sister were rescued by an uncle who wasn't Jewish. Unbeknownst to the Germans, the opera was a satire of Hitler. Later during this evening, she performed one of the songs from the opera with children from a Jewish Day school in Denver.
Her story left me moved, and emotional. I mentioned in my blog yesterday about grace - this woman was the embodiment - to endure such atrocities, and come through it, is nothing short of a miracle of the human spirit. It was incredibly inspirational. I'm a huge music fan, at one point after the invocation, a cantor from a synagogue came up to the podium to sing a song in Hebrew. I have no idea what the song was called, nor did I understand a word he was singing - but I have rarely heard something so superbly powerful and moving (I know I keep using that word, but it's the only one that seems to fit). His voice was incredible, he was not a young man, if I had to guess, perhaps in his 60's - but his voice was so strong and clear. What struck me was the emotion his voice conveyed; you could hear the sorrow and anguish, hope and love as his voice rose, and dipped - almost as if the notes were carried by a soaring bird - ahhh it made me incredibly teary eyed - those notes, those dynamics, literally pierced my heart.
During the Governor's speech, he mentioned a Hebrew phrase - Tikkun olam - which means "to repair the world". It was such a fitting description of our world today. The atrocities that still occur everywhere, that it's not okay to turn a blind eye to injustices, to use public policy to systematically wipe out an entire population. Our world is always going to be in a state of disrepair - as long as racism, anti-semitism, misogyny and homophobia exists. We know what needs to happen, it's a matter of knowing for yourself, when the time comes, will you be able to step up and act...?
6 million - that's a number - not a statistic. 6 million living, breathing, men, women and children, who felt the sun on their faces, loved, worshipped, lived - gone. Only because they were Jewish. We can never forget that number.
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