*“The world is new to us every morning…” Baal Shem Tov, a Kabbalistic Rabbi*

(See my connection to this saying and my promised Earth Day link with every posting.)

April 11th is Holocaust Memorial Day (“Yom Hashoah”) and I want to acknowledge this day with three important aspects that have often been overlooked. As a Jew I am very sensitive about The Holocaust.  But as a human being, I also realize there is a bigger picture….

First, while nearly 6 million Jews perished in this “tragedy without a reasonable explanation,” many non-Jews also perished. I Goolgled for statistics and found this list. Even though Jews were the focus of the “Jewish Solution,” we must not forget the millions of others who were killed or who died in the name of the Third Reich. (Also, let’s not forget the armed forces who fought to keep our country safe.)

Estimates of Non-Combatant Lives Lost During the Holocaust

(Source: www.ukemonde.com/holocaust/victims.html)

Ukrainians                     5.5 – 7 million
Jews (of all countries) 6 million +    
Russian POWs              3.3 million +  
Russian Civilians         2 million +    
Poles                                3 million +    
Yugoslavians                1.5 million +  
Gypsies                                           200,000 – 500,000      
Mentally/Physically Disabled    70,000- 250,000
Homosexuals                                 Tens of thousands      
Spanish Republicans                   Tens of thousands      
Jehovah’s Witnesses                       2,500 – 5,000  
Boy and Girl Scouts, Clergy, Communists, Czechs, Deportees, Greeks, Political Prisoners, Other POWs, Resistance Fighters, Serbs, Socialists, Trade Unionists, Others    Unknown

Second, a couple of years ago I met Professor emeritus Arthur Shostak, who has been writing a very interesting book on the Holocaust, not about the horrors, but about the altruism that took place. I was very moved by this concept and asked Arthur to send me a blurb about his book-in-the works. Here it is. Please note his request at the end:

Now, 65 years after the first liberation of a concentration camp in 1945, we mark Yom Hashoah Day, knowing that with every passing year we have fewer and fewer direct survivors among our world-wide Jewish community.

Accordingly, it is all the more imperative that we increase an ongoing effort to decide anew what story of the Shoah do we intend to pass along, much as we have done throughout the 3,000-year history of our religion. Over and again we have consciously designed and re-designed the stories at its heart (the Passover Story, the Purim Story, and so on). Our history has never been one cast in concrete, but rather what the Sages have helped us make of it, and we are the beneficiaries of their sechel, “smarts,” and especially of their deep faith in our ability to rise to the challenge.

We have the challenge now of constructing a version of the 1933-1946 torment of Eastern Jewry that does their suffering justice, even as it also honors their humanity. It is time we told a story that rages against the Horror (the scientific torture and murder of millions, including one and a half million children), but adds as well a proud account of the Help victims gave to one another, the assistance shared in an effort to remain human despite contrary Nazis efforts. For far too many years Holocaust memorialization efforts have accented the Horror – the Nazi Story, and neglected to tell of the Help – the Jewish Story.

I am writing a book advocating a new “formula,” one that will enable our young to find in a NEW Shoah narrative reason to feel pride in their membership in a religious community many, of whose Eastern European victims stood up to Evil and reached out to one another in the unimaginable hell of the concentration camps. It will draw on 100 memoirs, scores of oral history accounts, and the findings of scholars.

I am seeking interviews in the Philadelphia or NYC area with survivors open to discussing caring and  uncaring behavior in the Lager. I am also trying to find adults willing to read survivor memoirs and send me material they find in them that bears on the matter. Please contact me at arthurshostak@gmail.com

My note: When Prof. Shostak’s book is published, I hope to review it.

Because the Nazis killed Jews and non-Jews, I feel this day is important to all of us. As this famous poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller noted:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

They they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Third, apropos to this poem is the fact that many non-Jews did come to the aid of the Jewish people. Below is a section of an article I found on this site: www.mfa.gov.il. (This is the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.) You can also Google www.yad-vashem.org for more information. Here is an excerpt:

At Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial, close to 15,000 persons have thus far been identified and honored, under a program created by law (1963). These are the “Righteous Among the Nations.”

Those so recognized are awarded the Righteous Medal and a certificate of honor (to their next-of-kin in the event of a posthumous recognition) and their names are inscribed on the Wall of Honor in the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem. This is the highest honor bestowed by the Jewish people, through the State of Israel, on non-Jews.

Perhaps one of the most well-known non-Jew who helped Jews was Oscar Schindler, memorialized in Steven Spielberg’s movie, Schindler’s List. The photo below is from a site I Googled about Oscar Schindler, who was a German Catholic. Lesser known is Irene Sendler, a Catholic social worker who helped save Jews. You can see the video on www.youtube.com. Just type her name in the Search box and a number of links will pop up,including the trailer to the Hallmark Hall of Fame docu-drama in 2009.

Finally, I hope that all this information does not overwhelm you, but spurs you to learn more. To me, this day has become more important as the years go by, perhaps because I have expanded my idea of how to honor all the people, Jews ands non-Jews, who were victims of the Nazi machine and all the horrors that it stood for, and now for the HOPE it may bring with Prof. Shostak’s book.

* Link to Earth Day: This quote is part of a slightly longer quote that is my link to Holocaust Memorial Day and Earth Day.  If the world is new to us each morning, then each day we have an opportunity to help another person and/or to make the earth a safer, cleaner place to live, and to preserve it for those who come after us.  So if you have been wondering when to start to recylce or bike to work or use safer cleaning products, today is a good day to start!

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 10th, 2010 at 2:58 pm and is filed under This ‘n That. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.