The vast majority of those who survived the Holocaust never knew when or even where their family members died.
They knew that they needed a special day in which they could say Kaddish and mourn not only for their parents, family members and other loved ones who perished, but also for the life that they once knew — a world that vanished because of the tragic and horrific, life-altering events of the Holocaust.
In 1951, the Israeli Knesset, after two years of considerable debate over what date should be chosen, proclaimed the 27th of Nissan to be Yom HaShaoh U’Mered HaGetaot (Holocaust and Ghetto Revolt Remembrance Day).
Later it became known as Yom HaShoah Ve Hageverah (Holocaust/Catastrophe/Devastation and Heroism Day) or simply Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Today Yom HaShoah is commemorated worldwide to acknowledge and remember the depth and enormity of the loss Jews suffered as a result of the Holocaust.
Our Milwaukee Jewish community has held a Yom HaShaoh memorial observance since the early 1950s. This yearly commemoration, which began with a handful of survivors guided by a committee of Zionists, grew to become the commemoration it is today.
For years the memorial event was held at the former Jewish Community Center on Prospect Avenue. on the Sunday following the 27th of Nissan. After the JCC’s move to Whitefish Bay, space limitations made it necessary to find another venue; thus began the synagogue rotation.
After almost 20 years, our commemoration — now called Yom HaShoah, Memorial to the Six Million, Remembrance of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and All Resistance — will again be held at our newly expanded Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center. It will be on Sunday, May 4, at 2 p.m.
Over the nearly 30 years that I have been involved with the Yom HaShaoh Commemoration, it has truly evolved into a community event. The growth in attendance has ranged anywhere from 450-700 as both young and old, observant and non-observant, Jew and non-Jew come together as one community to remember, learn, memorialize and honor.
We have outgrown the notion that Yom HaShoah is only for the survivors. Just as during Passover Jews across the world remember that “we were slaves unto Pharoah,” so too, it is incumbent upon all of us to remember the Shoah/Holocaust because we are all, in a sense, survivors.
As the survivor community dwindles it becomes our responsibility — yours and mine, the entire Jewish community — to take up the challenge and the torch of remembrance. By coming together as a community we honor the lives and memory of those who are no more simply because they were Jewish, the Kaddish Hashem.
This year and in the years to come it will be up to us to give voice to the words that were on the lips of those who perished and those who survived — Never forget. Zachor. Remember.
Sandy Hoffman chairs the Yom HaShoah planning committee and the Nathan & Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Coalition for Jewish Learning. She is also a founding and coordination council member of Generations of the Shoah International and president of Generation After, a local organization of survivors, their children and others devoted to the mission of Holocaust remembrance and education.
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