THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS — Friday, March 29, 1963 - 40 To Save the Memory of the Six Million "Let us never forget!" was the cry that re- sounded among Jews when the cold-blooded murder by Nazi Germany of Six Million of their kin became known. - Why Remember? To remember with reverence and love was, they felt, not only a debt which they owned their martyred dead. It was also a duty they owed to themselves and their posterity. For to remember means to face stern realities -sternly, to reject soothing illusions, to be warned and forewarned. But memory, unaided, is elusive and unstable. We don't remember because we are commanded or exhorted to remember — not even because we have resolved to remember. And this is especially true of a painful memory. The proCess known in psy- chology as repression sets in, and the memory sinks into the limbo of the subconscious. Modes of Remembering It was a healthy instinct, therefore, that im- pelled sensitive men and women to devise instru- ments for keeping the memory alive. The list of such aids is impressive. It includes .museums and documentation centers, among which the Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the Yiv.o in New York and 'the - Con- temporary Jewish Documentation Center in Paris are the best known. It includes what has become known as "catastrophe literature," embracing, among other works, a sizable number of volumes in Yiddish commemorating obliterated Jewish communities. It includes the Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day decreed by the Knesset .in 1959 and observed at memorial meetings in larger Jewish centers. Monu- ments have been erected in cemeteries, tablets have been set up in institutions. All of these instruments are, no doubt, useful weapons in the struggle to remember. Nevertheless, we owe it to the purpose to which they • are all consecrated to appraise them realistically and objec- By RUFUS LEARSI Editor's Note: The author of this article, Rufus- Learsi, one of the most distinguished American Jewish historians, - essayists and anthologists, is chairman of the Seder Ritual Committee in Renzenz- brance of the Six Million Martyrs and Heroes of the Ghetto Uprisings. It was under his inspiration that this committee was formed, with headquarters at 15 E. 84th St., New York 28,. and that the Seder Ritual was written and introduced as part of the. Seder services. suggest they should be scrapped, .They _should, on the contrary, be strengthened and multiplied. They are serving a noble " and • useful purpose; • and • the men and women who_ created them are entitled to our esteem •and gratitude. Nevertheless, the sacred Purpose they haye in common would be ill served by nursing illusions about them, expecting more from them than they can give. . The Seder Ritual of Remembrance Is . there "a way .of remembering that does. meet these tests? There is, •and the principle on which it• is based is the same one that has given strength and endur- ance to all the crucial memories of the Jewish past. It is the principle of enshrining a memory in ' a recurrent observance and ritual, an observance that defies the tooth of time and endears itself to the masses of the people. • The Seder Ritual of Remembrance meets these tests. Linked as it is to •a millenial observance;• it will save the memory of our martyrs and heroes. for the generations to come as well as our own. The Passover Seder, moreover, draws an exceptionally large attendance, including a high proportion of our young. The Ritual, therefore, will. preserve the memory • not just for limited groups, but for the great multitudes of our people. The Ritual is brief but deeply moving, and it lifts up the Seder to a new and exalted level. It consists of a brief passage in Hebrew followed by a rendition of it into English, and concludes with the singing of Ani Maamin ("I Believe"), the hymn with which many of the martyrs in the liquidation camps went to their deaths. In every sector of the community—Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and unaffiliated—the Ritual is gaining ever wider acceptance. It answers the need in a manner that is instinctively felt to be fitting and effective. tively. That purpose is to save the memory from repression and oblivion, to keep it alive and func- tioning. To save it not just for the few, but the many. To save it not alone for ourselves of this day and generation, but for the generations after us. Two Tests Each of the instruments cited and all others should, therefore, be confronted with two tests and required to meet them both: One: Is the means in question valid only for the short present, but for the long future also? What, to use a well understood phrase, is its life expectancy? . Two: What is the extent of its impact? Does it reach out and encompass the masses of our people, or is its range restricted to limited groups? Will any of the instruments listed above sustain these tests? Museums and documentation centers do not attract the multitudes. The memorial books will gather dust on library shelves, their language unfamiliar even to the progeny of their authors and compilers:Memorial meetings on Remembrance Day — a day generally unobserved — will not become hackneyed features of a landscape, taken for granted and unnoticed. It should be emphasized that the proposed tests are not meant to belittle those instruments or to FOR THE SIX MILLION JEWS WHO PERISHED AT THE HANDS OF THE NAZIS AND FOR THE HEROES OF THE GHETTO UPRISINGS Perform this Ritual after the THIRD of the Four Ceremonial Cups, . just before the door is opened for the symbolic entrance of the Prophet Elijah. 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But we abstain from dwelling on the deeds of the evil ones lest we defame the image of God in which man was created, 'n't?Ot? y'")y.7 .1:1 7111 Di, ripp1D {? Hebrew: On.this night of the Seder we remember with reverence and love the six millions of our people of the European exile who perished at the ha:Kis of a tyrant more wicked than the Pharaoh who enslaved our fathers in Egypt. Come, said he to his minions, let us cut them off from All rise, and the leader of the Seder recites the following: Irnti 1;i,`? p nu?tp: ylr_r -vitt rendition - of the ? 03 And from the depths of their affliction the martyrs lifted their voices in a song of faith in the coming of the Messiah, when justice and brotherhood will reign among men. All sing ANI MAAMIN ("I Believe"), the song of the martyrs in the ghettos and liquidation camp:: ri41 nt i'Pt2PP '?t,t nR';;, Now, the remnants of our people who were left in the ghettos and camps of annihilation rose up against the wicked ones for the sanctifica- tion of the Name, and slew many of them before they died. On the first day of Passover the remnants in the Ghetto of Warsaw rose up against the adversary, even as in the days of Judah the Maccabee. They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided, and they brought redemption to the name of Israel through all the world. 'P t n.) r1t41 I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah: And though he tarry, none the less do I believe! AM MAAMIN ("I Believe") apiclaKte A-ni ma-a-min be-e-mu-no sh'le-mo r B'vi as ha-mo-shi-ab, v'af al pi oicia•vmh a• hi vncia-huh - She-yis-ma-mey-ha, im kol ze a-ni t rV ir-wrAmalhowrirmr. e' We " titled by %Ai 'maw V•iivt 4- — ImilNIONIIa•JU_Atum MOM Vi4L4 • vi- — 140 Stt ■ •••••.. as 0-it- a-crt iIf (talc SEDER RITUAL COMMITTEE 13 East 84 Street r Neu/ York 28, I\Tte York jatt 10( z,4 a- xi. - *wt. Ktib% tai RVA . Yotits rti vnaa-mip • Ni moo. 7- win