HMC To Host Yom HaShoah Remembrance

The Holocaust Memorial Center in
Farmington Hills will host its annual
communitywide Yom HaShoah com-
memoration 2 p.m. Sunday, April 23.
Yom Hashoah officially falls on April
24.
The formal program, beginning with
Posting of the Colors by members of
the Jewish War Veterans, Department
of Michigan, will be led by Rabbi
Jennifer Kaluzny and Cantor Michael
Smolash of West Bloomfield-based
Temple Israel.
Various community members will
speak and present readings, includ-
ing Holocaust survivors Michael
Weiss and Jack Gun. Nine candles
to remember and honor the 6 mil-
lion Jews lost in the Holocaust will
be lit by Ibolya Centeri, Barbara
Cohen, Ilana and Sandor Adler, Paula
Marks Bolton and Fryda Fleish, Ida
Wiener and Sid Neuman, Gita
Greisdorf, Sophie Klisman, Sarah and
David Waldshan, and Sima and Abe
Weberman. Afterward, those wishing
to light a memorial candle may do so
at the museum’s Eternal Flame.

Arolsen, Germany, museum
researchers and scholars gained
access to the extensive archive of
documents relating to more than
17 million victims of Nazism.
Since then, the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum has provided a
free service that has united genera-
tions of families and has tracked
long-lost family members, helping
Holocaust survivors, their children
and grandchildren to fill in the
blanks in their family history.
“What is the greatest fear of sur-
vivors today? That when they are
no longer here, what happened to
them would be swept under the
rug,” says Paul Shapiro, head of the
museum’s office of international
affairs, who was instrumental in
pushing to open the ITS archives.
“These millions of original docu-
ments are an insurance policy
against forgetting.”
With about 200 million pages of
documents relating to 17 million
people, the ITS collection contains
a wealth of information about sur-
vivors and victims of the Holocaust
and Nazi persecution, and about
displaced persons.
Facilitating research questions

HMC volunteers will participate in
the national observance of the world-
wide Holocaust memorial project,
“Unto Every Person There is a Name,”
an initiative designed to perpetuate
the individual memories of the 6 mil-
lion, including the 1.5 million children,
through public recitation of their
names on Yom HaShoah.
This year’s event is presented in
cooperation with C.H.A.I.M. (Children
of Holocaust Survivors Association in
Michigan), Hidden Children and Child
Survivors Association of Michigan,
Shaarit Haplaytah and the Program
for Holocaust Survivors and Families.
It is generously supported by the
Marsha and Harry Eisenberg fam-
ily, Robin and Leo Eisenberg family,
Karp family, Shari (Ferber) and Alon
Kaufman, Lisa and Gary Shiffman,
Judy and the late George Vine, Lori
and Steven Weisberg, and Lori and
Alan Zekelman.
Complimentary valet parking will be
available. For details, contact Laura
Williams at (248) 536-9605 or laura.
williams@holocaustcenter.org. •

like the Margolis’ is the job of
the museum’s top-notch team of
researchers. Holocaust survivors
and their family members contact
the museum on a nearly daily basis
with queries about relatives and,
sometimes using nothing more
than a first and/or last name,
museum researchers try to find
documents that will shed light on
the experiences of these Holocaust
victims. There is no fee for this
assistance.
Much of the museum’s informa-
tion comes from the ITS archive,
established by the Allies after
World War II to help reunite fami-
lies and trace missing people. The
archive includes millions of pages
of documentation from World War
II. It was kept closed until 2007,
when, with help from the museum,
it was opened to the international
community. Today, 11 nations have
access to copies of the archive; the
museum holds the U.S. copy.
“It’s really provided reality to very
uncertain and vague family history,”
Lynn Margolis says. “We’re really
grateful to the Holocaust Museum
for providing this service.” •

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jn

April 20 • 2017

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