“The Days of Remembrance”, according to https://nationaltoday.com/days-of-remembrance, is observed every year in April and May and is a week-long commemoration of the Holocaust.  In 2024, it is observed from May 5-12, with “Remembrance” Day being May 6.”

”The Days of Remembrance” was established as the country’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust by the United States Congress.  The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is responsible for leading the country in commemorating “Days of Remembrance” and also for encouraging these commemorations.  The Holocaust was the state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi rulers, allies, and collaborators.”  — National Days of Remembrance

Several years ago, while in Munich, Karen and I went to visit the first of the concentration camps setup by the Nazis.  The camp was just outside of a small town called Dachau.  Neither of us will ever forget that day.  The camp is now a museum devoted to remembering and explaining the unexplainable.  The pictures, the exhibits, the ovens, the hatred depicted in this former death camp are beyond words.  In a strange distortion of reality, Karen and I could not remember any color for that day.  It was all black and white and gray.  The grass, the trees, the other people we saw all appeared in shades of black.  It was like being in the Stephen Spielberg film “Schindler’s List”.   How could any culture, any nation, any so-called civilized people systematically murder over six million people because of their religion?  Numerous writers have tried to explain the Holocaust, but none have ever managed to.  It is an impossible effort.  It is impossible because it is not possible for any normal human being to imagine the hatred and prejudice that stands behind Anti-Semitism and other forms of racism. 

On the way to the camp, we were told by the bus driver (in rather a surprise announcement)  “don’t blame us for the Holocaust, only a third of the people in the Village of Dachau voted for Hitler.”  I thought “bullshit”.  Later after reading Goldhagen’s “Hitlers Willing Executioners” I realized my judgement of bullshit was far too kind.  When people do nothing in the face of crime and immorality, they are just as guilty as the people more actively involved.  A large number of German people either did nothing to prevent or actively facilitated the atrocities perpetrated against the Jewish citizens in Germany. 

Sadly, this persecution of Jews has gone on not only in Germany for centuries but also in parts of Europe, the Mideast, and the USA.  However, it was not until 1860 that an Austrian Jewish scholar, Moritz Steinschneider, introduced the term “Anti-Semite” to denote specific prejudice against Jews.  Today, the USA is embroiled in a bitter controversy.  Another divide among the American people has occurred.  We have those who support Israel in its war against Hamas and those who support the Palestinian people.  The confrontations are taking place in the streets of several major cities as well as on college campuses across the nation.  Many Jewish people in America feel like they are being attacked whether or not they stand with Israel in what some are calling a war of Genocide.  Pro-Palestinian Americans are also being attacked as they protest the Gazan war. 

The Anti-Defamation League recently published a study showing a rise in Anti-Semitism ideology and incidents in the USA over the past year or so.  U.S. Antisemitic Incidents soared 140% percent in 2023.

“ADL tracked 8,873 antisemitic incidents across the United States in 2023, the highest level recorded since ADL started tracking this data in 1979.” —  U.S. Antisemitic Incidents Soared 140% percent in 2023

While a large proportion of Americans are against Israel’s war with Hamas near fifty percent support the right of Israel to exist. 

“Support for an independent Jewish state remains high. Indeed, 47.6% of Americans support the notion of a two-state solution to the conflict and an additional 8.5% of Americans support Israeli annexation of the West Bank and Gaza.” — Antisemitic Attitudes in America 2024  

It is sad that we cannot both protest and also respect the position of those we protest against.  Whether or not one is Pro-Israel or Pro-Palestine, both have a right to be heard in a democratic society that professes the First Amendment for Free Speech.  Yet, we also see a systematic effort to silence those protestors who are taking sides with the Palestinians.  

In 1816 Commander Stephen Decatur said, “Our country!  In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong” — Naval commander Stephen Decatur.  Others have criticized this perspective as reflective of an unthinking extreme patriotism, or “jingoism”  Fifty-five years later, in 1871, a US Senator Carl Schurz gave a very appropriate reinterpretation of this perspective in a speech that included the statement, “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”  Both the USA and Israel may have some reckoning to be done but it will only happen if parties in both countries can sit down peacefully with their opposition and discuss their differences.  

I wrote the following blog in a series of stories written several years ago.  I was inspired by Edgar Lee Master’s “Spoon River Anthology.”  I called each of my stories “Autobiographies from the Dead.”  Each of my eight or so protagonists tells the story of their death.  In this story, Ephraim is a Jewish boy who dies in the Holocaust in a Nazi Concentration Camp.  The story will not be easy to read but it is my effort to share some of the real horrors of the Nazi holocaust with those of us who were not there.  We cannot whitewash, we cannot trivialize, and we should never forget the evil and hatred that Anti-Semitism has evoked and still evokes in the world today. 

Ephraim the Jew

My name is Ephraim. I was born to a Jewish mother and a Jewish father in Germany.  My parents and great grandparents were all born in Germany.  We were not rich but we made a living over the years in various trades.  My family was all hard workers and I was taught the value of hard work and an education at an early age.  We were proud to be Germans.  My father had served with distinction in WW I and my great grandfather had served in the earlier Franco Prussian war.  We had many musicians and writers in our family and were proud that we could contribute to the rich German cultural heritage of our homeland.

One day, some young men started throwing stones at my father and me as we came home from work.  We arrived home with bruises and cuts but no broken bones.  My mother said that things were getting worse for Jews in Germany and that she had heard of many such incidents from other friends.  My father said she was being an old woman and should not worry so much.  This was just the result of a bunch of hoodlums and the government would soon arrest such bullies so that the streets would be safe again.

Weeks and months went by.  More assaults!  More bullying!  Everywhere we turned it seemed that people hated us.  The government passed Pro-German Laws to protect “Pure” Germans.  Somehow this seemed to mean that we Jews were now the enemies.  We were no longer Germans.  Our businesses were taken away from us.  Our jobs were taken away from us.  Then they took our freedom away from us.

They took us in trains to these large detention centers.  Smoke and flames were visible from numerous chimneys when we arrived.  Some people whispered that these were Jews who had been cremated.  It was too horrible to conceive.  It could not be true.  We were whipped, kicked and herded off the rail cars.  An angry looking German soldier in a black uniform with skulls and lightning bolts directed each person either to the right or to the left when we fled the cars.  Women and young children went one direction.  Men and young boys went the other direction.  My mother and sister went to the right.  They waved and said good bye.  “We will see you soon.”  “We must go to the showers first.”  We never saw them again.

My dad and I were assigned to work details.  Food was meager and work was hard.  We labored with very little rations from before sunrise to well after sunset.  My father died a year later.  He was nothing but skin and bones.  He said: “I am sorry.”  Another year later and I could not get up and go to work.  The guards came for me one day and said, “You are garbage and you are no longer useful.”  Two other Jews were forced to pick me up.  They carried me to a large pit.  I noticed many other bodies in the pit.  They threw me in the pit with the other bodies.  A guard shot me three times.  “Like shooting fish in a barrel he said.”  I was shot once in the head and twice in the chest.  He laughed as I twitched and as the blood oozed out of my veins.  I was surprised that it did not hurt as much as I thought it would.  I could feel my soul leaving my body.

Finally, I was looking down at my distorted figure and it was no longer twitching.  Even the blood had stopped oozing out.  The guard who shot me had lit a cigarette and was enjoying a quick smoke before returning to another work detail.  I watched for a while as other men and boys were carried to the pit and murdered.  I could no longer bear to look.  I decided to go find God and talk to him.  I was confused and angry but I thought that perhaps a talk with God might straighten things out.  My spirit left this hell on earth.

I am dead many years now and I am still searching for God.  I want to know what we did to deserve such a fate.  We worked hard.  We paid our taxes.  We treated our fellow Germans with respect.  We worshipped on the Sabbath.  We upheld all of the commandments.  We were good people.  We were good Germans.  Why did they hate us so?  What did we do to cause this suffering?  Was this some kind of a test?

I think God is hiding from me.  He is nowhere to be found.  I have wandered now for years and still I find no God.  I know he exists.  I believe in God but I think he is avoiding me.  I think he may be ashamed for letting this happen.  I swear my soul will never rest until I find God and ask him this question:  “Why?”  But what if he doesn’t know the answer?

Time for Questions:

What is an Anti-Semite? Why do people still hate Jews? What did any Jews ever do to deserve such a fate?  Are you an Anti-Semite?  What can you do to help fight Anti-Semitism?  Do you try? Why not?

Life is just beginning.

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”  ― Elie Wiesel

Please join us in community with local survivors and their families as we memorialize the tragedy and loss of the Holocaust and pay tribute to those who survived and the generations that have followed them. This special observance will take place at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 5^th, 2024, at The Tucson J in the Ballroom.

Each year, it is imperative that we set aside this day to remember the more than six million Jews murdered during the Nazi Holocaust and continue to raise our collective voice to reaffirm the promise of ‘Never Again.’ This year’s theme, “Generations After: A Community Promise,”  reflects our Southern Arizona community’s solemn vow to our local living survivors and those who came before: in the face of our past trials and our present challenges, we will remember, and we will respond.

This annual community commemoration is a collaboration of Jewish Family & Children’s Services, The Tucson J, and Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center with funding provided by Jewish Philanthropies of Southern Arizona.

This event is free and all are welcome.