It is Holocaust Memorial Day on Friday. You can read more about this year’s theme here.
On days such as this I am reminded of the words of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel who wrote the following:
‘What cannot help but astound us is that the Hasidim remained the Hasidim inside the ghetto walls, inside the death camps. In the shadow of the executioner, they celebrated life. Startled Germans whispered to each other of Jews dancing in the cattle cars rolling towards Birkenau; Hasidim ushering in Simchat Torah. And there were those who in Block 57 at Auschwitz tried to make me join in their fervent singing. Were these miracles?’
What a passage: it is haunting and inspiring, harrowing and uplifting all at once. Similar emotions are provoked by a recording made at Bergen-Belsen shortly after it was liberated in April 1945. It includes weary Jewish survivors singing Hativkah (The Hope), the song that became the national anthem of the state of Israel. You can find a link to the recording on the right-hand side of this page.
‘Never despair! Never! It is forbidden to give up hope,’ wrote Rabbi Nachman, a century before any of these events took place. These are wise words, yet not always easy to live up to.
Yet consider the Hasidim who celebrated life in the death camps, and the survivors who sang of hope at Bergen-Belsen. Stories such as these remind me how even in the darkest moments it is possible, and essential, to maintain hope.
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very moved reading this and its special message x
Today on Yom HaShoah I would like to pay tribute to the Allied Forces who were given the task of liberating the concentration and work camps in Europe
I have been thinking about my late father-in-law, who was in the 4th Armoured Division of the Coldstream Guards, which was part of the Allied Forces, who liberated Bergen Belsen. The nightmare of which was with him until the day he died aged 93.
I think that being part of that must have been dreadful, but I think more so being Jewish
Rev Hardman was not only our Rabbi, but lived in the same road as we did, and was the father of one of my classmates.
He and his wife were lovely people who lived an Orthodox life without rubbing anybody’s nose in it. The Rebbetzan (Mrs Hardman) didn’t wear a sheitl, and did her gardening in sensible trousers.
They lived the life rather than wore the uniform.
I played Hatikvah from Belsen and cried. Thank you.
May Rabbi and Mrs Hardman be seated on G-d’s right hand.
‘Never despair! Never! It is forbidden to give up hope,’ wrote Rabbi Nachman”
It’s why I write comments on sites such as this, and why I post articles on some of them. The anti-Zionists and anti-Semites will NOT win, not even (especially not even) those who purport to be on the same left as I’m on. The last thing they are are my comrades.