•

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z. • ...P.

AK?*

Recalling

those

murdered

in the

Holocaust.

Elizabeth Applebaum
AppleTree Editor
or Israeli author Aharon
Appelfeld, the question is
not how to write about the
Holocaust. It's not a matter of
searching for the darkest words
to describe the despair or the
sharpest ones to speak of the
hunger or the most indelible ones
to describe the smell of death.
Instead, he says, a writer need
offer nothing but pure facts,
because there are no words to
even begin to speak of the Holo-
caust.
It is, perhaps, for this very rea-
son, this inability to find words,
that some Jewish communities
remember in silence.
In Israel on Yom HaShoah Nolo-
caust Memorial Day), everything
stops for a moment. On the
evening as the day begins, a siren
blasts throughout the country. Cars

F

halt in the middle of the road.
Phone calls are interrupted mid-sen-
tence. A cashier waits to complete
a transaction. A teacher pauses in
her lesson.
This year, Yom HaShoah is
observed Tuesday, April 13.
University of Michigan-Dearborn
history professor Sidney Bolkosky,
director of the school's honors pro-
gram, suggests that families make
an effort to include an education-
al aspect to the day.
One way to do this is by read-
ing together, perhaps an appro-
priate essay. If children are
mature enough, Professor
Bolkosky recommends a chapter
from Primo Levi's The Drowned
and the Saved or Elie Wiesel's
ight, or a description of Jewish
life in an eastern European city
before the war.
You also may want to view the
Web site of the Holocaust Oral

History Project. To get there, go
to the UM-Dearborn site at
www.umd.umich.edu . Click on
Library Resources and then Holo-
caust Oral History Project, and
you'll find the complete tran-
scripts of interviews with 1 1
Holocaust survivors, including
photographs.
Another Web site is that of Yad
Vashem, Israel's Holocaust
memorial museum. It is located
at www.yad-vashem.org.il . In
addition to general information,
the site provides an opportunity
for families to register the names
of loved ones lost in the Holo-
caust, as well as the names of
those who survived. There is a
long waiting list, so be patient if
you choose to submit a' name. To
access the submission form, go
to www.yad-
vashem.org.il/schregjs.htm.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial

Museum in Washington, D.C.,
also maintains a registry of names
of Holocaust survivors, and will
conduct a search request for those
needing information about lost fam-
ily or friends. The e-mail address is
www.ushmm.org/forms/trace.
htm.
The Holocaust Memorial Cen-
ter in West Bloomfield maintains
a Web site at
www.holocaustcenter.org .
Among its features is a listing of
local Holocaust survivors who
have made either a videotape or
audio recording of their experi-
ences.
For an extensive listing of world-
wide organizations that help locate
survivors and provide information
on those killed in the Holocaust,
contact AMCHA, the Israeli Center
for Holocaust Survivors, at
www.amcha.org.il/find.htm#in
fo. 1-1