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Poem Captures the Essence of Yom Ha’Shoah in St. Petersburg
Standing in front of more than 100 people gathered to observe Yom H'Shoa at St. Petersburg's new YESOD JCC, Lena, herself a survivor, shared a poem she wrote.
"Each person has a name," her poem reads. "The victims of the Holocaust — fathers, mothers and children, brothers and sisters, grandfathers and grandmothers — had names. But time dulls their individual features." Lena's words captured the essence of the ceremony at YESOD which showcased youth, bravery and wisdom, a few of the beautiful human traits that were murdered behind the barbed wire fences of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec and Bergen Belsen. The wisdom of age which Lena's poem spoke of presented itself through a series of speeches by Marat, first secretary of the Israeli embassy in the Russian Federation, Pavel, president of the association of Jewish concentration camp prisoners, Alla, president of the Holocaust Fund, Maria Rolnihkaite, a writer who warned Russian authorities about a growing indifference to the Holocaust and Aleksander Melikhov, another well-known Russian writer. While in celebration of survival and hope, Lena, a local Jewish drama troupe and 'Teila', the childrens' vocal ensemble of the Israeli cultural center, captured the essence of youthful vibrancy and hope through their respective performances of "Children of the Holocaust" and "HaTikva". Honoring bravery, the troupe then presented roses to a group of World War II veterans of the Red Army, which helped liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny. This was an event that showcased humanity at its finest and contrasted it with the brutal reality of what has been left behind by mankind at its worst. "Now there is only a number," Lena recited "a terrible number — 6 million." June 2006 |
