I often think about my Zayde, Leon Cooper z”l, in the Amida when we recite the m’chayei hameitim blessing, thanking God for giving life to the dead. My Zayde lived through concentration camps when his family was murdered and was saved because of Oskar Schindler. He was moved to Theresienstadt and liberated on May 9th, 1945. It was an important, life-saving day, but my Zayde emerged from the war deathly ill and with no family. It is a miracle, one that I am grateful for every day, that he was able to create a life, that he was able to find life after the Shoah.
I wish you all would’ve known him. You probably would have loved my grandfather. He was a man who loved Jewish community, for it was Jewish community (and HIAS in particular) that gave him life after the Shoah. He was a funny man, though in fairness, his crude sense of humor was off-putting to some (and endearing to others). He owned a nut and dried fruit company, and he wouldn’t let anyone leave his store without tasting a few samples. I remember as a kid he would take me into the warehouse and jokingly put me onto the scale that they would use to weigh huge bags of pecans.
The Shoah was always a part of my narrative growing up. At age-appropriate times I learned more details of his story, but I knew from a young age that my mother didn’t have grandparents from his side and that I was named after my Zayde's sister who died as a child. My Zayde spoke in schools all around Houston about his experiences, but whether he was talking to one person or a crowd of hundreds, he never told his story without one important message: don’t hate. Don’t degrade other people. Treat all people fairly. Just because someone is different than you doesn't mean you should treat them differently than you would want to be treated. Stand up for those who experience injustice.
This is the message of Never Forget. Remembering the Shoah means remembering the atrocities of the Holocaust and it also means remembering the underpinnings of human behavior that enabled the Shoah to happen. Remembering the Shoah means taking on the responsibility of being an upstander when we see injustice and when we see people treated unfairly.
May Yom HaShoah always serve as a reminder for us to keep the memories of those who were killed in our minds. May Yom HaShoah remind us to honor the stories of those who survived. And May Yom HaShoah continue to serve as a reminder for the work that we must all engage in.
