Mezirich, Ukraine

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY

APRIL 23, 1998

Dear Congregation, dear Youth!

In spite of the pain in my heart and the hurting memory, I am full of emotion, standing here before you and sharing with you the unification with 'the memory and loss of 6 million of our people.

Together with me here are survivors of that terrible Holocaust, remnants of the magnificent Jewish congregation of the town Mezirich in the region of Wohlin in the Ukraine; that same wonderful town which you have chosen to adopt her survivors.

It wasn't easy for the Jews to live in a foreign land; a life which was forced upon them following the destruction of the second Temple in Israel.

In the town of my forefathers, there existed a glorious Jewish community. Between one pogrom to the next, the Jews arose from the ruins and continued to lead a Jewish life next to their neighbours, citizens of their country, and lead a spiritual life together with Zionist activities and youth movements - until the rise of the Nazi Amalek. And as though killing and destroying were not enough, the Nazis preceded this by persecuting, humiliating, harassing and burning.

Two "actions" were carried out in the town of Mezirich against the Jews - one on the holiday of Shavuot (Pentecost) and one on the holiday of Succot (Feast of the Tabernacles) in 1942. The Nazis knew that on these holidays, the Jews gather in the Synagogue and thus they will be easy to catch. Three-thousand of the town's Jews were annihilated and the heart was torn - oy!

I did not come today to teach you chapters in history. This your teachers will do. I came here with precious survivors and each one of them has a hair-raising survival story - the tragedy of the entire European Jewry.

The Holocaust Memorial Day does not serve the survivors. They need no reminders. They have been living with the memory of their nightmares for 55 years. They breathe it daily, fall asleep with it every night, and together with their sadness and grief, they are also happy in that they were successful in creating families, and from the destruction and ruins, the Jewish nation was rebuilt - an independent people living in their own free country!!!

For us, our generation, yours, and the coming generations, this Memorial Day is for taking time-out from the marathon of life, to stop and think in what way is man above animals? To recount and retell the terrible atrocities, the destruction of an entire people, lest they forget. Just as the story of the exile from Egypt is passed on from generation to generation, so it should be passed on about the dark age of life's misery; the period where humanity reached a low ebb and in which someone arose and decided to carry out a genocide of an entire people. It is important for us to tell and retell the story for the benefit of the coming generations, so that our tragedy shall serve as a warning to them; that this tragedy must walk before them as a pillar of fire in the history of nations - especially these days when Holocaust deniers are multiplying in numbers.

Stop for a moment to think - six-million Jews, including babies, children, boys and girls, men, women, old folks, entirely defenseless, are being tortured, humiliated, undergoing terrible deaths, burned alive, or killed by gas, or being used to advance science of Nazis - may G-d eradicate their names from the face of the earth - in strange and hurtful experiments which leave them with terrible disabilities.

For millions of Jews, their world turns upside down, and for years, those terrible war years, they must live under inhuman conditions - to suffer hunger, not for a few hours, but for years. Families are separated, babies are torn away from their mother's breasts, and all this only because they are Jews.

Six Million Jews - it's not just a number in a history lesson - each one of them and of those millions had a breathing spirit, a personality a living flesh!!!

THE HOLOCAUST DID NOT HAPPEN TO HIM, TO HER, TO THEM, TO YOUR NEIGHBOUR, OR DISTANT FRIEND, BUT TO US - TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE AND BECAUSE WE WERE JEWISH.

Last July, I was fortunate enough to join survivors of Mezirich and the area and to reach the graves of the hallowed. There I found the resting place of my grandfather and grandmother and my father's family who were buried alive. How emotional it was!

The walls of Eastern Europe have finally fallen and we visit and mourn our dead. Who would have believed that one could return and place a stone on that cursed land and tell our dear ones: "We have not forgotten you!" even if we did not know them.

I was in Poland, and there, too, I placed stones on unmarked graves. After all, are they not a part of my people? Our lost brethren - we have not forgotten - to remember everything and not forget a thing.

And in Poland, I saw Israeli youth arguing - and over what? Who shall carry the Flag of Israel on every site we visited. What pride overwhelmed me, and at that moment, I knew we had on whom to count, not narrow-minded youth and not youth who gave the responsibility to someone else.

A visit to Poland, or the Ukraine, or to other places which had a large concentration of Jews in Eastern Europe, in which the memories. of those dark days has not subsided, is not just the legacy of the survivors' families but of every Jew: religious or secular, Orthodox or Reform, Sefardic or Ashkenazi. This visit is compulsory for every Jew, wherever he is. Our dead are deserving of this honour and this sacrifice while giving up other marginal luxuries. Remember, the enemy forces did not distinguish between the groups mentioned above. For them, a Jew is a Jew.

And while visiting the killing valleys, we were reborn - more loving, more forgiving, more tolerant, more sensitive.

A plant without roots will not survive - and man is like the tree in the field - a nation without roots/without a past, will have a hard time in the future!

And now comes the time to search our souls - as one united nation, and as an individual:

What lessons have we learned from this terrible tragedy? We must have a UNITED SOCIETY - SENSIBLE POLITICS - MILITARY POWER.

Yes, yes in unification is our immunity.

In political sensibility - we shall no longer be ashamed! And can say we are candle to the Gentiles.

In military power - we can be certain that we will not again be led like sheep to the slaughter. Our military power depends on you. When your time comes to serve our country, always remember that together with your duty, you have the sole privilege, which privilege did not uphold us in the past, and which we so needed.

Just be sure to have good concepts in this period.

I look at you and know that the future is in your hands, and that you will make it better. You have luxuries which the six-million did not have. You live in Israel - your country - and not in the Diaspora which is full of evil, wickedness and hate. You were born into a democratic society, in a country which was not given to the Jewish people on a silver platter, but when it was declared ours, has become the diamond in the crown for every Jew in the world, wherever he is.

You are growing up in a democratic country, where everyone's voice is heard. Remember - never do unto others what is hated by you.

A healthy society makes certain to honour other's rights.
Do not wait for another Memorial Day to search your soul. Soul searching is good anytime.

The President of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy once said: "Do not ask what the country has done for you, but, rather, what can you do for your country?" What a right and clever saying.

Our country is everyone together. Put into practical use, the values which your parents and teachers are imparting to you - and better sooner than later. When you do good deeds, may the love of country and love of man adhere to you.

Unfortunately, our people do not lack Memorial Days. At this time, let us bow our heads and unite with those who are no longer with us, with those who were slaughtered on the Sanctification of the Holy Name, with those whose only sin was being Jewish, with those who fell and sanctified themselves so that you and I can sit within safe borders - and in their death, bequeathed us life.

MAY THEY BE OF BLESSED MEMORY!!!

Written by Margalit Lempel, a descendant of Mezirich, who lives in Israel.

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