Never Forget!

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah in Hebrew). On this day, we not only remember the 6,000,000 Jews who perished, but non-Jews who were affected as well. An entire civilization in Europe was rubbed out because of the acts of the Nazi party. Careers, homes, and towns were literally destroyed. Had these horrible acts of genocide not occurred, craftspeople, doctors, lawyers, shopkeepers, and other professionals would have been able to pass their trade to the next generation.

Jews throughout Nazi-occupied Europe were forced to wear the yellow star pictured above. This was to mark them for humiliation and desegregation. 

Yom Hashoah falls on the 27th Day of Nissan in the Hebrew calendar. This day was chosen because it falls after Passover and coincides with the Warsaw ghetto uprising. On this day, the entire country of Israel stands silent to remember those whose lives were lost. All restaurants and places entertainment are shut down for 24 hours.

Want to learn more?

• Click on this timeline from the History Place Web site for events that span from the years 1933 to 1961.
• Online exhibitions are available at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Web site.
• An excellent bibliography is maintained at The Holocaust History Project.
• Auschwitz was the most notorious of the concentration camps. Time Magazine shows photos of the site 65 years later.
• No lesson on the Holocaust would be complete without a discussion of Anne Frank's diary. Learn more at the Web site for the Anne Frank Museum in Holland.
• Brainpop provides excellent lessons for schoolchildren of all ages. See lessons on the Holocaust and Anne Frank. 
• The New York Times also provides great resources for the classroom.
• Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum in Israel, is conducting a campaign called "Gathering the Fragments" and is collecting all artifacts associated with the Holocaust era.
• Classroom Help has a list of recommended books for children.
• Adults should consult Goodreads for their recommended Holocaust book list.

I'd like to end today's post with a quote by the author and concentration-camp survivor Elie Wiesel:

“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”