“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.”
― Edmund Burke
Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Seventy-five years ago, the Soviet Army liberated the prisoners at Auschwitz in Poland. The vast majority were Jewish.
Almost all the survivors have now passed. But we must remember what happened.
I remember Andy Rooney’s testimony on 60 minutes. He was at the liberation of Dachau in 1945. When I attended the American Legion meeting that week, WWII vets finally shared about this experience for the first time that I heard. They had been part of this armored column. The painful memories brought tears to their eyes.
I met Zvi Kalisher, a Polish Jew living in Israel, and read his account about how he survived.
I attended a lecture by Shimon Peres in Dallas, TX, and sat next to an elderly lady with a concentration camp tattoo on her arm.
Of course, I have read numerous accounts and watched television documentaries. But these firsthand accounts had the most impact.
Antisemitism is rising dramatically. Could another holocaust happen?
But we can and should fight against it. Let’s start with remembering. Tell the stories to our young people. Give them the facts. They can’t remember something they never knew about. Only the truth can overcome lies.