Top of Mind Thursday – April 24, 2025: Remembrance & Survival

Today is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Eighty years ago, the concentration camps in Germany, Austria, and Poland were liberated. The survivors were emaciated and skeletal—and they were the lucky ones.

Over six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust—2/3 of Europe’s Jewish population, nearly 1/3 of all Jews alive globally at the time. Millions of non-Jews were killed as well, including Gypsies, Poles, the disabled, and LGBT populations.

Many of the survivors have spent their lives ensuring their stories (and the stories of those who perished) are told and retold. The Holocaust has been memorialized in books and film, as well as in museums and memorials around the world.

Yet, in spite of this effort, there are many around the world who don’t believe either that the Holocaust happened, or that it could easily happen again. They think this was a myth, or that the numbers have somehow been exaggerated.

They don’t understand how quickly hatred and bigotry can spiral out of control. The words “Holocaust” and “genocide” are bandied around much too easily, which takes away from the magnitude of what happened in Europe nearly a century ago.

It’s also estimated that within the next decade, we will lose nearly 90% of those Holocaust survivors still alive, as they are now 80-100 years old.

We hear the slogan “Never again,” but those words are empty if we don’t remember what it is that happened, the bravery and dedication of those who defeated the Nazis, and the actions we need to take to prevent this kind of horrific massacre from happening again.

Remembrance is not for those who are gone: it is for those of us alive today. Even more importantly, it is what ensures the survival of future generations.

In the words of the late Chief Rabbi of the UK, Lord Sacks:

We know that whilst we do not have the ability to change the past, we can change the future.

We know that whilst we cannot bring the dead back to life, we can ensure their memories live on and that their deaths were not in vain.

And so, on this Yom HaShoah, we commit ourselves to one simple act:

Yizkor. Remember.

May the souls of the victims be bound in the bond of everlasting life.

Amen.

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