Never Forget

January 27th is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This is a day of commemoration for the victims of the Holocaust during World War II. It commemorates the genocide that resulted in the death of approximately 6 million Jews, 2 million Romany, 250,000 mentally and physically disabled people and 9,000 homosexual men by the Nazi regime and its associates. Today, January 27th, is the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.

Every year at our family Passover Seder we recite these words:

Seder Ritual of Remembrance:

This is for the six million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis and for the heroes of the ghetto uprisings.

On this Seder night we remember with reverence the six million of our own people, and those of all nationalities and faiths, who only yesterday were mercilessly crushed by a tyrant more wicked than the Pharaoh who enslaved our fathers in Egypt.

And they slew the blameless and the pure; men, women, children and babies did they destroy absolutely in chambers of fire and in factories of death.

On this night of Passover we recall with pride the undaunted defenders of freedom in the ghettos of Europe—our brave brothers and sisters who defined the tyrant, even as did our ancestors in the days of Judah the Maccabee.

On this night we also recall and give tribute to those members of our family who have passed on. We celebrate their lives by honoring them and giving strength to their memory, despite the darkest of circumstances. We honor their courage by re-telling the Passover story, our Spring Festival of freedom and re-birth. 

Visit the Museum of Tolerance on Pico Boulevard at Roxbury Drive in Los Angeles to learn more about it.

Considering the political climate in the United States these days, we need to remember now, more than ever.