Holocaust Remembrance Day to Shabbat: Darkness to Light

January 27, 1945,

 the Auschwitz Concentration Camp was liberated.

 In 2005, the UN set the day of January 27

to remember the victims of the Holocaust.

What better place to remember than Yad Vashem.

In the Vad Vashem Synagogue are remnants of the past.

Displayed artifacts from Romania,

including part of an Aron Kodesh, the Holy Ark

where the Torah scrolls were kept.

A Torah from Mantte, Transnistria,

covered by a mantle from Salonika, Greece,

stands on exhibit in the back of the synagogue.

This tiny diary holds memories,

of those who so much wanted to live,

expressions of the human spirit.

Stored in Yad Vashem are photos and memories

of those who survived and those who perished.

Not all have names.

Children, so many children murdered.

They left no diaries.

Child survivors are growing older and dying.

Soon a doll collection and memories

will be all that remains.

Holocaust Remembrance Day falls on a Friday this year.

But as the sun sets it will be Shabbat,

and Rosh Chodesh Shevat,

the new month that ushers in the spring.

From the darkness of the Holocaust,

it is time for a new season and renewal.

שבת שלום

חודש טוב

Chodesh tov.