Yom HaShoah Memorial Honors Survival

On Sunday, April 12, at the Memorial to the Six Million in Greenwood Cemetery, under tents only barely shielding from the hot sun, more than three hundred attendees gathered to remember the Holocaust and hear from survivors. Crowds converged outside the memorial, whose historic restoration efforts had just earned it an award from the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. Those who could find seats first had to grab the Stones of Remembrance left on them, painted in bright colors and with the names of children who had perished, that they would later take to set down in the memorial.

The Jewish War Veterans led off the event with a presentation of colors, and stood by the flags throughout the event, changing post at regular intervals. Some fourth-generation survivors presented a Jewish star made of yellow flowers – the remaining fourth generation survivors would present additional flowers later.

The first comments of the day were from Rabbi Joseph Prass, of the Weinberg Center for Holocaust Education at The Breman, and Karen Lansky Edlin, president of Eternal Life-Hemshech.

“During Passover, we remember the heroism of our ancestors, to take a first step and to risk it all, and that is why formally, when the State of Israel named this day in Hebrew, it is actually called ‘Yom HaShoah G’vurah’, ‘Holocaust and Heroes Remembrance Day,’” said Rabbi Prass. “On Yom HaShoah we remember a world that forgot its humanity, who needed to speak up against the injustice of all around them, and that is where the g’vurah, the heroism, is so important.”

“This is the 61st annual Yom HaShoah commemoration that has taken place at this memorial. Sixty-one years of bearing witness together, 61 years of refusing to forget,” said Edlin. “For me, today is personal. I’m a daughter of two Holocaust survivors. My parents carried with them stories that were sometimes too painful to speak about, yet they could not remain silent. Their survival was not just an act of endurance, it was an act of defiance, a refusal to let hatred have the final word. Growing up, I came to understand that memory is not passive – it’s an obligation. It asks something of us. It asks us to listen, to learn, and to carry forward what those who perished could no longer do.”

In between the prayers and songs from community members and Davis Academy and Epstein School students, and the commentary by rabbis and organizers, the survivors spoke, echoing the same themes: the dangers of antisemitism and hate, and the patterns they see repeating.

“There is good and evil in every human heart, and only a thin line that separates the two,” said Robert Ratonyi, a survivor from Hungary. “Every genocide that I studied, the people that planned them carried out the destruction of others because of their race, religion, ethnicity – crossed that thin line. Antisemitism, racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia are sicknesses of the human heart and soul unchanged for … thousands of years.”

“Antisemitism has risen to a level I have not seen in the last eight decades that my feet have been on this ground,” said George Rishfeld, a survivor from Poland. “Hatred and prejudice has also taken a vicious turn towards other minorities. I want everyone to relegate and forget about the word ‘hate’ from their vocabulary.”

“Remember, everyone’s blood is the same color,” said Ilse Reiner, a survivor from Czechoslovakia. “If you get cut, no matter what religion or ethnicity, you will bleed, and the blood will be red.”

“No society is immune,” Ratonyi continued. “The Holocaust happened in the center of educated, cultured Europe. Later genocides, whether or not the United Nations formally recognized them, show the same pattern. Human nature has not changed, and the capacity for cruelty unfortunately remains with us.”

“When history is forgotten, it is doomed to be repeated,” said Bea Schemer, a survivor from Germany. “In light of important historic documents, plaques, and figures – reminders of how a constitutional democracy was founded – being destroyed and removed from our educational systems, it is important to remember the Holocaust. Education is the key to preventing another Holocaust.”

Ben Walker, a survivor from Romania, shared his experience surviving in Romania, noting how the systematic killing was not limited to the concentration camps.

“They didn’t have the machinery, the killing machinery that the Germans developed. They did it the old-fashioned way, by hunger, diseases and so forth,” said Walker. “Many people were in a barn, in the cold. Once in a while, a soldier would come by and take a look. We requested new straw. He said, ‘We brought you here to die, not to give you new straw.’”

“Don’t ever give up,” said Reiner, sharing her means of survival with others who may need it. “Once you give up hope, your spirit sinks, and your chance of survival sinks. You have to keep up your spirits. You have to say to yourself, ‘Tomorrow will be better. Yesterday is the past. Focus on joyful things from your past, even while living under inhumane and difficult situations.”

“Don’t say IF I survive. You need to say WHEN I survive.’