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Rochelle Wilner |
Frank Dimant |
Prof. Stephen Scheinberg |
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Rochelle Wilner |
Frank Dimant |
Prof. Stephen Scheinberg |
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The Holocaust refers to a specific event in History, namely the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by the Nazis and their collaborators between 1933-1945.
—Taken from the Ontario Yom ha-Shoah Memorial Day Act
Holocaust Memorial Day provides on an opportunity to ensure that the crimes against humanity committed during the Nazi period are never forgotten, and the relevance of the Holocaust for each new generation is understood. Although Canada was less directly affected by the Holocaust then Europeans, the period of Nazism and the Second World War remain of fundamental importance to both our Canadian values and the aspirations that we share with our European neighbours, centred on the ideals of peace, justice and community for all.
The repetition of human tragedies in the world today reminds us that we must be vigilant and learn lessons of the Holocaust again and again. We commemorate this day to raise awareness and understanding of the events of the Holocaust as an issue for all humanity, based on a recognition that such events could happen again anywhere and at any time unless we ensure that our society is vigilant in opposing racism, antisemitism and other forms of bigotry. The horrendous crimes, racism and victimization committed during the Holocaust must not be forgotten nor repeated in Europe or elsewhere in the world.
Dear Teacher, I am the survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness: gas chambers build by learned engineers, children poisoned by educated physicians, infants killed by trained nurses and women and babies shot and burned by high school graduates. So I am suspicious of education. My request is: Help your students to become more human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns. Reading, writing and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human.
Haim Ginot, Teacher and Child, 1972
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Please consider the following suggestions as you begin to plan your remembrance assembly.
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| Activity | Suggestions |
|---|---|
| Opening Remarks | See Suggested Opening Remarks |
| Invited Guest | e.g. Survivor, religious leader, etc. |
| Poem Unto Every Person There Is A Name | Background music suggestion: Soundtrack from Schindler’s List (see Music in Resources) |
| List of Names | e.g. slides/music, students carrying card with story of victim * for a computerized list of names, visit www.yadvashem.org.il |
| Closing Remarks | Remembering the victims, focusing on the "Righteous", positive comments, speaking out against racism. See Suggested Closing Remarks. |
Welcome. Today’s Yom Ha-Shoah remembrance ceremony is being held in conjunction with similar ceremonies in many schools around the world.
The Holocaust is a tragedy whose size defies comprehension: Six million Jews were killed. One and a half million children. Thousands of Jewish communities were obliterated — forever.
Today we will focus on its individual victims — the men, women and children who could not escape the most murderous regime in history.
Today, we also pay tribute to the heroic struggle of the survivors. Having endured the hell of Hitler’s Europe, they refused to give up — on freedom, on life, on their people.
Today, we meet to remember the victims of the Shoah.
We read their names today as a tribute to the lives they led and hope to lead.
We give names back to those who were stripped of their identities before they were robbed of their lives. By reciting their names, ages and birthplaces, we remember that each victim was an individual, a son or daughter, a sister or brother, a child or a parent. Each had hopes and dreams and, like all people, each clung to life.
We, the living, bear witness today — not just here but in communities around the world. Together we affirm that the innocent lives lost in the Holocaust have not and will not be forgotten.
Their names will always be remembered.
The Holocaust shook the foundations of modern civilisations. Humanity is still scarred by the belief that race or religion or disability or sexuality makes some people’s lives worthier less than others’. Genocide, antisemitism, racism, xenophobia and discrimination still continue. We have a shared responsibility to fight these evils.
The Holocaust teaches us that democratic societies can only continue to exist when they treat people justly and respect the rights of all individuals and communities as well as those of other people and nations. For the sake of humanity, we need to keep alive in our own minds, the memory of the millions of people who perished in the Holocaust and of those who have been massacred in ethnic and racial conflicts all over the world. We need to be constantly reminded of our responsibility for making choices that can lead to a better world.
As the events of the Holocaust recede further into the realm of history and the number of survivors left to tell their stories becomes fewer, it is essential that we make sure that the crimes committed then are not forgotten or repeated anywhere in the world. On Holocaust Memorial Day we should remember the way in which the Nazis victimised Jews, Roma and Sinti (Gypsies) people with disabilities, political activists, gays, Blacks, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others who did not conform to their ideal of a master race. Our remembrance of the Holocaust should be a reminder to governments of how important it is to take a stand internationally to support the rights of minority groups around the world. The Events of the Holocaust can teach us lessons for today and the future. The persecution of Jews and other minority groups in Nazi Germany should remind everybody of the importance of striving to create a just and tolerant society in which we can all live peacefully. Within our society we all have individual responsibilities towards our fellow citizens, regardless of their ethnicity, gender religion or sexuality. We all have an individual responsibility to act in a way which does not do harm to others. We are all individually responsible to ensure that we are active citizens and do not stand by while others are victimized or persecuted. It is vital that the Holocaust is never forgotten. Holocaust Memorial Day serves as a mark of respect to the victims of this most heinous of crimes. For their sake, we must ensure that we remember the Holocaust, and learn from it lessons for our own lives, and do our utmost to ensure that it will never happen again.
REMBEMBERING THE SIX MILLION
Public Recitation of Names of Holocaust Victims on Yom ha-Shoah
The world-wide Holocaust memorial project, "Unto Every Person There Is A Name", is a unique project designed to perpetuate the memory of the Jewish victims of the Shoah as individuals, by the public recitation of their names on Yom ha-Shoah.
The International Committee of "Unto Every Person There Is A Name", takes pride in the fact that its raison d’etre — advocating the personalization of the Jewish tragedy — has gained wide recognition and hundreds of Jewish communities throughout the world participate in this project. As time passes and fewer witnesses remain, it is of great importance to strengthen the bond and create a personal link between the Jewish people today and those who perished under the Nazi genocidal regime.
Ceremonies in which names of Holocaust victims are recited together with such information as age, place of birth and place of death, personalize the tragedy of the Holocaust. Emphasis is thus put on the millions of men, women and children who were lost to the Jewish people and not solely on the cold, intangibility embodied in the term "The Six Million". Each year a different theme is emphasized.
"Unto Every Person There Is A Name" is conducted around the world in hundreds of Jewish communities through the effort of major Jewish organizations including B’nai Brith International. B’nai Brith Canada conducts these ceremonies at various public venues across the country, such as the local provincial legislature, city hall, the cenotaph, and other locations. This would be an excellent program for educators and students to attend or for a school to host. To find out where a ceremony is being held nearest you, contact your local B’nai Brith office. (Contact Information Page)
Adapted from "Unto Every Person There Is A Name" coordinated in North America by B’nai Brith and sponsored by Speaker of the Knesset.
Moderator or Another Speaker: I am about to read the poem which provided the spark for today’s program. Through its rhythmic verse we are reminded that each person lost in the Holocaust was a unique individual, that each number had a name.
Example 1 from Yad Vashem Hall of Names
Example 2 from Yad Vashem Hall of Names
The Holocaust calls into question our most basic assumptions about human nature, modern society, social responsibility, and global citizenship. We must come to the realization that democratic institutions and values are not automatically sustained, but need to be appreciated, nurtured and protected; silence and indifference to the suffering of others, or to the infringement of civil rights in any society, serve to perpetuate the problems; and the Holocaust was not an accident in history. It occurred because individuals, organizations, and governments made choices that not only legalized discrimination, but which allowed prejudice, hatred and ultimately, mass murder to occur. We must stand on guard against prejudice, racism, and stereotyping in any society.*
The Holocaust is one of the darkest chapters in 20th century history. The destruction and pain of the Holocaust affected millions of Jewish men, women, and children as well as people with physical, or mental disabilities, and others targeted for racial or religious reasons or because of their sexual orientation. Ten provinces have declared Holocaust Memorial Day. As proclaimed in Ontario’s 1998 Holocaust Memorial Day Act:
“Such a day would provide an opportunity to reflect on and educate about the enduring lessons of the Holocaust. This day shall provide an opportunity to consider other instances of systematic destruction of peoples, human rights issues and the multicultural reality of modern society.”
In reflecting on the lessons learnt from the Holocaust we must accept the need for perpetual vigilance to avoid such atrocities in the future. We must never take democracy for granted.
*Adapted from Canada and the Holocaust, A Resource Guide for Social Studies 11 Teachers, Ministry of Education, British Columbia
The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing
Against a white stone…
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly way up high.
It went away I’m sure because it wished
To kiss the world good-bye.
For seven weeks I’ve lived in here
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don't live in here,
In the ghetto.
Pavel Friedman
7.1.1921-29.9.1944
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