Survivors, liberation and rebuilding lives

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Survivors, liberation and rebuilding lives

• Holocaust memorial day 2005
• Images are from Beth Shalom, the Holocaust Centre

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Every photograph seen here is of someone Jewish
who did not survive the Holocaust
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• This year is the 60th anniversary of the
  liberation of the extermination and concentration
  camps in Germany.
• It provides an opportunity to show respect for
  all the survivors of Nazi persecution and mass
  murder, and to listen to what they can tell us
  about the best and the worst of human behaviour.
• It also encourages us to learn once again from
  the lessons of the past.

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• The Holocaust is usually taught as the mass
  genocide of almost six million Jews in Europe
  during World War II.
• More than five million others were also
  persecuted, tortured, tattooed with an
  identification number and killed.

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• Of the 11 million people killed during the
  Holocaust six million were Polish citizens.
• Of these
• three million were Polish Jews
• three million were Polish Christians and
  Catholics.

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• Most of the remaining victims, Jewish and
  non-Jewish, were from other countries including
  Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, Russia,
  Holland, France and Germany.

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• The victims included men, women and children.
• The survivors and the families of the five
  million who were not Jewish often feel
  overshadowed by the sheer number of Jewish
  casualties.
• We need to remember and recognise the suffering
  of these people too.

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• Many of these died for their race or their
  beliefs.
• Many died helping their Jewish neighbours by
  giving them and their families food and shelter.
• They too deserve their place in history.

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The Nazis decided that it was a waste of time and
money to support disabled people.

During Hitler's "cleansing programme", thousands
of people with a range of disabilities were
deemed useless and put to death like animals.
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The Roma Gypsies were chosen to be wiped out
because of their race.

• They were persecuted and denied privileges in
  many European countries.
• The Nazis believed that the Jews and Gypsies
  were racially inferior and therefore worthless.
• Like the Jews, the Gypsies were moved into
  special areas set up by the Nazis.

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Half a million Gypsies, almost the entire
Eastern European Gypsy population, was wiped out
during the Holocaust
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Rev. Martin Niemöller said

• First they came for the
• communists, and I did
• not speak out
• because I was not a communist.
• Then they came for the socialists,
• and I did not speak out
• because I was not a socialist.

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• Then they came for the
• trade union leaders,
• and I did not speak out
• because I was not a trade union leader.

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• Then they came for the Jews,
• and I did not speak out
• because I was not a Jew.

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• Then they came for me,
• and there was no one
• left to speak out for me.

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• "...to remain silent and indifferent is the
  greatest sin of all...
• Elie Wiesel shown aged 15

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There are 350,000 survivors of the Holocaust
alive today...There are 350,000 experts who
just want to be useful with the remainder of
their lives. Please listen to the words and the
echoes and the ghosts. And please teach this in
your schools.Steven Spielberg, Academy Award
acceptance speech
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What is a survivor?

• someone who lives through affliction
• someone who outlives another
• someone who survives in spite of adversity

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Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, winner of the
Nobel Peace Prize

• Ask any survivor and he will tell you, he who
  has not lived the event will never know it.
• And he who went through it will not reveal it,
  not really, not entirely. Between his memory and
  his reflection there is a wall and it cannot be
  pierced.

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• ..only the survivor can bear witness,
• transmit a spark of the flame,
• tell a fragment of the tale,
• a reflection of the truth.

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The stories of survivors touch us.
They tell us the worst and most depraved
depths that humanity can sink to. They also
show us the compassion and strength that human
beings can demonstrate in times of extreme
evil.
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• I think a lot of survivors feel very guilty
  about surviving.
• For the longest time I kept asking myself, "Why
  am I alive? Why is my father dead? Why did
  6,000,000 die and I am alive?"
• And when I got older, I began to realise that
  maybe God chose me because whatever little I have
  to contribute to telling of this, I am able to do
  that now.
• a survivor

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Tamara Deuel, Holocaust survivor, said

• Every individual who survived
• that other world,
• has a duty to leave
• documentation behind so
• that future generations
• will remember
• and will not forget.

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• Have the people of the world learned from the
  evil of the past?
• Have we forgotten?
• Have we turned our backs and let it happen again?
• Could it happen again?
• Could it happen here?
• Is it happening somewhere now?

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