Dearly Beloved,
Today is Yom HaShoah. The Jewish holy day for remembering the Holocaust. And I must admit, dear friends, standing before you all, here in this beautiful synagogue, wearing this tiny hat, I am feeling very out of place. And humbled.
I am not Jewish. I’m not even religious. Actually, I don’t know what I am. I am a seeker, I guess. A fellow human being. Someone with a heart, a liver, two eyes, and a soul. Just like you. I am proud to be here. Wearing this kippah on the crown of my head.
My rabbi friend tells me it is a custom to deliver a “hesped” or eulogy and address the departed. Instead of eulogizing, I am going to read the Holocaust victims’ words to you. I would ask you all to bow your heads as they speak through my feeble voice:
GERTA WEISSMAN KLEIN, a teenage prisoner from Sobibor Camp:
“[Sometimes, I remember] Ilse, a childhood friend of mine, once found a raspberry in the camp and carried it in her pocket all day to present to me that night on a leaf. Imagine a world in which your entire possession is one raspberry and you give it to your friend.”
JACK ADLER, former prisoner of Dachau:
“I was liberated on May 1, 1945, while on the death march out of Dachau… [I believe that] in order for humanity to survive we must allow ourselves to be guided by the Golden Rule. There are seven billion people on this planet earth, we all belong to one race, the human race. So treat others the way you would like to be treated.”
PREMYSL DOBIAS, former prisoner of Terezin labor camp:
“The hardest thing was not the hunger, though the hunger was constant. The hardest thing was to keep your mind from becoming a desert. We would try to remember the smell of a kitchen at home, or the sound of a specific song. We had to prove to ourselves every single hour that we were still the people we used to be, and not just the numbers they had given us.”
BEN LESSER, former prisoner of Dachau camp:
“We were barely alive. We dragged ourselves crawling on our hands and knees to kiss the feet of the American G.I.s who looked like gods to us survivors.
“We must stand up against hatred, bullying, bigotry, antisemitism and stop prejudice, racism, discrimination of any sort… Remember that Love and Hate are both contagious so choose love.”
ABRAHAM BOMBA, a barber who escaped from Treblinka camp:
“I was chosen to work as a barber outside the gas chamber. The Nazis needed the women’s hair. They told us, ‘Make the women believe that they are just getting a haircut.’ We already knew it was the last place they went in alive.
“We had scissors. We cut off their hair, threw it on the floor, in about 2 minutes we had to be finished. Not even 2 minutes. Because there was a line waiting for the next group. And that is how we worked.
“Some of the barbers recognized their dear ones, like their wives, mothers, even grandmothers. Can you imagine that you have to cut your loved ones’ hair and not tell them a word because you are not allowed to speak? Your loved ones are going to be gassed in about 5 or 7 minutes, but you cannot tell them. All you can do is cut their hair.”
LESLIE AIGNER, former teenage prisoner of Auschwitz:
“I focused on surviving one day at a time.”
WLADIMIR DSCHELALI, former prisoner of Dachau:
“Being happy lets us develop, inspires, illuminates our lives. I would like to make a small present of a poem [to the victims and survivors]…
“Spring has come! The gardens start singing ‘Hosanna!’ to life. On the spur of the moment light blue skies all turn to pink, Aurora, goddess of the golden dawn, will open new horizons soon, and on some garden path the youth will give us lilacs.”
And so, dearly beloved, on this Yom HaShoah, may He who makes peace in the high places make peace for us and for all people.
Oseh Shalom.
Amen.