Yom
Ha'Shoah Ve'Hagvurah Memorial Day, April
7, 2103
April
8, 2013 | Nurit Greenger
George
Santayana, the Spanish- American philosopher, famously said “those
who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Regrettably, in the
21st Century, only 68 years since the allies brought Nazi Germany
and Japan to submission, in Europe, the anti-Semitism poisonous snake is
rearing its ugly head again. Europe has simply failed to learn from its darkest
days of its much bloody history against Jews and others, much of which was
stained and set up by anti-Semitism. It appears that the European continent is
now condemned to repeat those same mistakes once again even if we say
"Never Again".
Since WWII the nation of Israel has been under
trauma. So, yes, each year we, Jews, repeat
the Shoah-Holocaust story and we will repeat and tell it for eternity, as it is
never enough, praying and making sure it will never happen again.
Like each year in Los Angeles, California, several
hundred people, among them consuls of several countries, attended the memorial
service at the Museum Of The Holocaust (LAMOTH) in Pan Pacific Park. )http://www.lamoth.org/(
The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust (LAMOTH)
Among the speakers were E. Randol Schoenberg, President
and acting Executive Director of LAMOTH, David Segal, Israel Consul General, Los Angeles
mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Jona Goldrich, among the founders of the museum, and
Theodore Bikel who also sang, in Yiddish, the Partisans' song Zog Nit Keyn Mol, meaning, 'Never Once Say it'. The keynote speaker was Ruth Klüger, a Holocaust survivor, born in 1931, who
was only six years old when Hitler marched into Vienna and today a Professor
Emeritus of German literature at the University of California, Irvine and the
author of the bestseller weiter leben: Eine Jugend (Continue to Live. One Youth), about her
childhood in the Third Reich. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Kl%C3%Bcger)
Ruth Klüger
What is to the write about such a somber event? What is
to write about the mass murder the Nazi German perpetrating against the Jewish
nation for no other reason but for them being Jews?
What is to the write about a world that turned its back
on the Jews when they were seeking to escape the Nazis claws and find shelter
outside of Nazi Europe?
The word Holocaust is a camouflage for the words Mass Murder;
YES, the German Nazi nation perpetrated a mass murder of Six Million [some say
even more] Jews, almost a mass murder of the entire People.
There was only one Shoah and we must not be shy to call
it the worst mass crime of one type of human beings against another type of
human beings, in the history of mankind.
But what is worse to know is that Hitler did not want to
kill the Jews, he just did not want them living in the land he ruled. But when
the world did not want them either and, at large, closed the doors of possible
refuge, Hitler found the "easy" Final Solution, which was to kill the
entire Jewish nation and he almost succeeded.
So when we talk about crimes against humanity, we can
point fingers at many nations that, directly and indirectly, gave a hand to the
Nazi Germans to perpetrate their evil deeds.
The Shoah was the amputating of the Jewish People's limbs
but not their soul. One of three Jews on earth was murdered in the 4 years of
the war. Miraculously, these limbs started to grow back with the establishment
of the State of Israel. But the trauma is far from over and forgotten because,
the Shoah is an event that is larger than life and too big not to remember. It
is the defining crime against humanity.
Yes, God commanded the Jewish people to have forgiveness
and mercy in their heart, but not foolishness. So I am here, as each year, to remind
my fellow Jews: Stay vigilant and never forget what can happen again.
Today, when the Jewish State of Israel, the Jewish
Nation's only state, is attacked by any mean possible, whether it is political,
economic, via media, and cyber, lies and deception, each Jew needs to remain wary
and mean when he or she say, NEVER AGAIN.
The slumber and indifference is unacceptable, for indifference
begins with silence; evil begins with silence. We must speak up and tell the
Shoah facts and never be shy to tell it as it was, the worst crime against humanity.
Yes, Jews are part of humanity.
The history of the Shoah is the guiding light to the
future, based on the evil history of the past.
There will never be justice for 6Million murdered Jews,
among them 1.5Million children who did not even exactly know what to be a Jew
meant and for sure did not understand why Germans, in uniform decorated in the
Swastika badges hated them so much, so they hunted them in order to kill them.
There
will never be real justice for the 6Million innocent dead Jews. Give a voice to the voiceless.
Remember Never to Forget!
***
The song 'Zog
Nit Keyn Mol', Yiddish: זאָג
ניט קיין מאָל, also referred to as Partizaner Lid or, the Partisans' song,
was written in 1943 by Hirsh Glick, a young Jewish inmate of the Vilna Ghetto.
The song is considered the anthem of the Holocaust survivors and is sung in
memorial services around the world.
The title means "Never Once Say
it", has derived from the first line of the song, "Never say that you
are going on the final road." During WWII, "Zog Nit Keynmol" was
adopted by a number of Jewish partisans' groups operating in eastern Europe. It
became a symbol of resistance against Nazi Germany's persecution of the Jews and
the Shoah.
Hirsch was inspired to write the
song by news of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the song needs to become the
second anthem of the Jewish people after Ha'Tikvah: Never say you are going on your final road, as you did not, and you have
become a free nation in your own, ancient country, Israel.
Chava Alberstein - ZOG NIT
KAYN'MOL - Jewish Partisan's Anthem - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wgYnYSg3Zs
And
Partisan Song sung by Annie Lederhendler - http://blip.tv/yiddish-book-center-video/partisan-song-sung-by-annie-lederhendler-6098040
---
Original Yiddish
זאָג נישט קיינמאָל!
זאָג ניט קיין מאָל, אַז דו גייסט דעם
לעצטן וועג,
כאָטש הימלען בלײַענע פֿאַרשטעלן בלויע
טעג.
קומען וועט נאָך אונדזער אויסגעבענקטע
שעה
ס׳וועט אַ פּויק
טאָן אונדזער טראָט: מיר זײַנען דאָ
פֿון גרינעם פּאַלמען-לאַנד ביז ווייַטן לאַנד פֿון שניי,
מיר קומען אָן מיט אונדזער פּייַן, מיט
אונדזער וויי,
און וווּ געפֿאַלן איז אַ שפּריץ פֿון אונדזער בלוט,
שפּראָצן וועט דאָרט אונדזער
גבֿורה אונדזער מוט.
ס'וועט די מאָרגן-זון באַגילדן אונדז דעם
הייַנט,
און דער נעכטן וועט פֿאַרשווינדן מיטן פֿייַנט,
נאָר אויב פֿאַרזאַמען וועט די זון אין דעם קאַיאָר-
ווי אַ פּאַראָל זאָל גיין דאָס ליד פֿון דור צו דור.
דאָס ליד געשריבן איז מיט בלוט און ניט מיט בליי,
ס'איז ניט קיין לידל פֿון אַ פֿויגל אויף דער פֿרייַ,
דאָס האָט אַ פֿאָלק צווישן פֿאַלנדיקע ווענט
דאָס ליד געזונגען מיט נאַגאַנעס
אין די הענט.
טאָ זאָג ניט קיינמאָל אַז דו גייסט דעם לעצטן וועג,
כאָטש הימלען בלייענע פֿאַרשטעלן בלויע טעג.
קומען וועט נאָך אונדזער אויסגעבענקטע שעה –
ס'וועט אַ פּויק טאָן אונדזער
טראָט – מיר זייַנען דאָ!
English version
Never say you are going on your final road,
Although leadened skies block out blue days,
Our longed-for hour will yet come
Our step will beat out - we are here!
From a land of green palm trees to the white land of snow
We arrive with our pain, with our woe,
Wherever a spurt of our blood fell,
On that spot shall spurt forth our courage and our spirit.
On that spot shall spurt forth our courage and our spirit.
The morning sun will brighten our day
And yesterday will disappear with our foe.
But if the sun delays to rise at dawn,
Then let this song be a password for
generations to come.
This song is written with our blood, not with lead,
It is not a song of a free bird flying overhead.
Amid crumbling walls, a people sang this song,
With grenades in their hands.
So, never say the road now ends for you,
Although skies of lead block out days of blue.
Our longed-for hour will yet come –
Our step will beat out - we are here!
a "violation of YouTube's policy prohibiting hate speech."
