A DAV TO EMEMSER Holocaust Memorial Center's annual Yom HaShoah program commemorates those who perished. HARRY KIRSBAUM Staff Writer somber mood fell over the crowd in Handleman Hall at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield on Sunday as 575 metro Detroiters paid tribute to the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust. The commemoration, spon- sored by the Holocaust Memorial Center and Shaarit Haplaytah of Detroit, included a dance per- formance set to the music of Schindler's List, a candlelighting ceremony, poetry readings and speeches. "Stunned and bewildered, our people — raised in an environ- ment of compassion and love — clung to the belief that the initial unprecedented evil they wit- nessed was an isolated event that would not and could not possi- bly be repeated," said Gustav Berenholz, executive committee chairman of the West Bloomfield-based HMC, in an emotional speech. "How wrong we were. The evil (of the Holocaust) not only was continuous but each day it became more horrifying." To the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust, the Farmington Hills resident said, We miss you and are tor- tured by remembering how beautiful you were — your smiles, your joys, and the great potentials you possessed. All of this went up in ashes. We miss you so much. We will never, never forget you. Rest in peace." Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig, HMC founder and executive director, said anti-Semitism, the Versailles treaty and the post- World War I economy were all factors in triggering the Holocaust. What made the Holocaust possible in Germany day after day for five years was an added indispensable variable that characterized the German mentality of the time. "The lynchpin was the charac- ter of the people who believed that whatever was proved to be good for them, that was all that mattered," he said. "A kind of realism that was not restrained, that was not disciplined, that doesn't know any limits. It was a culture that was nurtured in Germany for many centuries. "There was one aspect that characterized their people for so many years, namely the deifica- tion of their leaders. While that characteristic has been signifi- candy reduced today, forgiveness to the Germans can only be given by survivors themselves." . About 100 people lit yahrtzeit (memorial) candles at the HMC eternal flame adjacent to the JCC after the commemoration. Metro Detroit observed Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day, actually April 19) on Sunday. Lawrence Wolfe, JCC president, said, "To remember the Shoah is to remember individuals, not just numbers, because whole families were obliterated without anyone to remember who they were and what they loved. On Yom HaShoah, we remember them." E 1. Helena Lebovic of Southfield, a survivor, lights a memorial candle at the JCC. 2. In song, Cantor David Montefiore of Congregation Beth Ahm remembers the victims of the Shoah. 3. Lawrence Wolfe, JCC president. 4. Gustav Berenholz, survivor 5. Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig, HMC executive director. 6 Survivors light yahrtzeit candles at the HMC. 7 The American Dance Academy of Commerce Township ensemble performs.