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Remembering The Six Million

T

‘

E S
J O

he 27th day of Nisan
tion, for us survivors, the tragedy
by the Jewish calen-
of the Holocaust is not just a part
dar corresponds this
of history, it is a wound, a cancer
year with the secular calendar
that is in our neshamahs … our
May 5. That date was offi-
souls, which continues to hurt …
cially declared by the State of
it will never heal.
Israel and also the same date
As we know, everybody dies
was passed by the Michigan
sometime. But, God forbid, if
Michael Weiss
Legislature by Gov. Jennifer
a father or mother or a family
Granholm, declaring this
member dies, there is a levaya
date Yom HaShoah, the official day to
(funeral) and there is a kaver (grave);
remember the Holocaust.
but our 6 million chasidim, our 6 mil-
I am sure we, the survivors, will
lion innocent family members, our 1½
remember that day forever when the
million children never had a funeral or
German Nazis forced us out of our
a grave. Their graves are in heaven and
homes, put us in ghettos and then took
in our hearts in Gan Eden (Heaven). We
us to Auschwitz, Buna, Majdenek and
Jews believe that the neshamahs never
many other concentration camps, where die … that the 6 million souls are down
we found killing factories equipped with here with us.
gas chambers where they murdered our
I would like to finish with a quote
innocent holy martyrs by poison gas and from our great Prime Minister of Israel
then took them to the crematoriums
Menachem Begin. In 1981 in Jerusalem,
where they burned them to ashes.
we had the Worldwide Gathering of
And today, all of what is left of
Survivors. The prime minister, in his
European Jewish life … ashes and
goodbye speech to us, finished, and I
cemeteries … every inch of ground of
quote: “And today from this podium, in
Europe is cursed because it is soaked
this hall, on this solemn day, I vow to
with Jewish blood. Every silent barrack
you that as long as there is an Israel, no
in the hundreds of concentration camps
Jew will again be forced to wear a yellow
over Europe is crying out with the pain
star or be tattooed with a number.
of its victims. The wind blowing over
“And I vow to you that there will for-
Europe will forever carry the smoke and
ever be an Israel … so these horrors will
ashes of the 6 million innocent people
never be witnessed again! May God give
and children who were murdered by
His people, His children … strength!
the Nazis. Seventy years after the Shoah, May God bless His people and His chil-
our ears still hear the cries from the gas
dren with peace.”
chambers … our noses can still smell the
Michael Weiss, a Holocaust survivor, is a speaker
stench from the crematoriums.
at the Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman
During the Holocaust years, most of
Family Campus in Farmington Hills and author
the countries in Europe betrayed our
of the book Chimneys and Chambers. For more
people. Many countries helped in the
murder of 6 million of our holy, innocent Yom HaShoah-related stories, see page 40.
martyrs. Even the Western countries
closed their borders.
On this day of Yizkor, we will
remember the righteous gentiles
forever. They put their lives and
the lives of their families in jeop-
ardy to hide and save Jewish lives.
There was the German Oskar
Schindler who saved 1,200 Jewish
lives. Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish
diplomat who finished college at
the University of Michigan, was
sent to the consulate in Budapest
where he saved tens of thou-
sands of Jewish lives. Each year,
I hear more and more children
and grandchildren of the righ-
teous gentiles are honored at the
Holocaust Center in Jerusalem at
Yad Vashem.
Seventy-one years after libera-

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8 May 5 • 2016