All that we can do is just survive
All that we can do to help ourselves is stay alive

These are lyrics from Rush’s “Red Sector A,” a song about living in a concentration camp. These lyrics have special meaning today since it’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. For Jewish people around the world, as well as their friends and loved ones, this is a day to remember and reflect on the terrible atrocities that occurred during World War II.

There are several events in the coming days that mark this solemn time: On Sunday, April 26, the Holocaust Remembrance Day Community Celebration takes place from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Mercer Island, with a 2 p.m. Remembrance Service at the Holocaust Memorial, Stroum Jewish Community Center, 3801 East Mercer Way, and a program from 2:30 to 4 p.m. at Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation, 3700 East Mercer Way. On Tuesday, April 28, South Seattle Community College will be the site for the 5th Annual Yom Hashoah, which will run from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Later on April 28, the Seattle Jewish Film Festival is hosting “Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh,” starting at 6:30 p.m. at McCaw Hall in Seattle.

Holocaust Remembrance Day, called Yom Hashoah in Hebrew, occurs on the 27th day of Nisan, in the Hebrew calendar. Ceremonies take place on this day, and throughout the week, every year in remembrance of the approximately 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust. It is a national holiday in Israel.

Several people in our office shared touching anecdotes about individuals who helped protect Jewish people during that horrific period. One story was about an Amsterdam woman who had trap doors in her closets where she hid Jewish children in the neighborhood from the Nazis. Another story was about a Swiss woman and her family who lived on a river that bordered Germany. She and her family smuggled Jews across the river to safety.   

For more information about events, the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center has a handy flyer here. To visit the WSHERC Web site, go here.

Here is a story in yesterday’s New York Times on new findings about 1.5 million Jews killed during WWII in the former Soviet Union. 

I hear the sound of gunfire at the prison gate
Are the liberators here?
Do I hope or do I fear?
For my father and my brother, it’s too late
But I must help my mother stand up straight