I Remember

Today is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.*

In honor of all those who perished, were murdered in the Holocaust, and what lessons we can learn from remembering, I send this to you.

My parents are Holocaust survivors, or now, were Holocaust survivors.  In their honor and memory, I remember.  In memory of the six million Jews who were murdered, I remember.  For this I say “Never Again”.  We remember to honor those who were murdered and to ensure that it doesn’t happen again, anywhere, and to anyone.

“What does it mean to remember? It is to live in more than one world, to prevent the past from fading, and to call upon the future to illuminate it.”  Elie Wiesel

This year we have another reason to remember.  While we remember the many, too many, who were murdered, shot, gassed, and many, too many who perished from Typhus, malnutrition, just gave up, suicide….    Today we also remember and think of those like my parents, who weren’t murdered… who survived, as our existence is challenged by Covid-19.

While it is not an apt comparison, as no comparison is fair or equal, they can serve as lessons, reminders, and add some perspective.

To most of us, it is unimaginable how the survivors survived enduring the unendurable and unimaginable.

They were able to do this because consciously or un, they believed that their lives had a purpose and meaning.  They had faith, hope and looked to the future with that. They believed they had something or someone to live for.  If they didn’t, they probably wouldn’t have survived in the first place.

This is a powerful lesson and reminder for us all.  These survivors remind us of what people are capable of enduring, how, and why.

It is a powerful lesson for all of us today in “shelter in place”, uncertain of how long, fearful of the disease, mourn the loss of life, fearful of our personal economic future, etc.

Just like the survivors did, let’s replace fearful thoughts by looking to the future with faith, hope, and purpose.  With that, we can and will get through this to a brighter tomorrow.

“The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity—even under the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to his life.” – Dr. Viktor Frankl from “Man’s Search For Meaning

Be Good Do Good Think Good Be Healthy

*Today is also the Yarzheit, anniversary of my Mother’s passing.  I write this in her honor and memory.  Quite a coincidence that her passing was on the same day as Yom Hashoah?