Yom HaShoah: A Day of Remembrance
BY JILL DAVIS
Photos by Julie Weissman Nearly 270 residents filled
the Towers on the Green
on Thursday, May 2, for
North Shore Towers’ Annual Holocaust
Memorial Program. The
evening was introduced by Eva
Kessner, herself a survivor of the
Holocaust, and she reminded everyone
that “six million Jews were
murdered in the Holocaust, among
them one and a half million children.
Two thirds of Europe’s Jews
were exterminated.”
This painful reminder of the
atrocities that occurred decades
ago carried extra poignancy this
evening as an anti-Semitic attack
had occurred in a San Diego synagogue
just the week before. The
attack left one person dead and
three others wounded, including
the synagogue’s rabbi. “Now
more than ever,” Eva said, “it is so
important for us to join together as
a community to remember them…
let us please have a moment of
silence for the victims.”
Eva then introduced NST Board
member Bob Ricken, who said that
when he was the Long Island coordinator
for the Anti-Defamation
League, he worked with Steven
Spielberg to build an archive of
Holocaust survivors’ testimonies.
“Steven started the Shoah
Foundation,” Bob said, “and we
now have the testimony of 55,000
survivors.” He went on to explain
the importance of passing along
these testimonies to the next generations
and that “hopefully, programs
such as this will be passed on
to our children and grandchildren.”
Rabbi Michael Klayman of the
Lake Success Jewish Center gave
the invocation in which he read
a poem and emphasized that “…
hate is not acceptable. I hope we
do all in our power to urge our
young to remember and share all
those testimonies which can never
be forgotten.”
A short video about the horrors
of the Holocaust, “Memories,”
followed. The film, written and
sung by Abie Rotenberg, included
the memorable lines, “…what will
become of all the memories… are
they to scatter with the dust in the
breeze…when the very last survivor
fades away…”
Eneas Arkawy, the founder of the
Holocaust Memorial Program at
NST, then took the podium to read
excerpts from “Remembrance.” Her
stirring reading concluded with “…
but on this sacred Yom HaShoah,
we remember all who perished
with our tears, with our prayers,
but above all, with our love for one
another.”
Marcia Jacobson led the candle
lighting ceremony, in which
six candles are lit by Holocaust
survivors. The candles, Marcia
explained, are “in memory of
the six million souls who perished
in the Holocaust.” All of
the candle lighters are survivors:
Perry Hirsch, Rose Koran, Hilda
Schwartz, Edith Luster, Eva
Kessner, and Vera Eden and her
cousin, Eva Eban.
Following speaker Vera Eden
(see sidebar), the evening concluded
with a prayer sung by Kandy
Diamond.
The candle lighting ceremony
NST Holocaust Program Founder
Eneas Arkawy and program host
Eva Kessner
Holocaust Survivor Vera Eden Testifies
Vera Eden, who immigrated
to the US in
1958 and now lives at
the Towers, was the evening’s
featured speaker.
Vera and her cousin Eva
were part of a large, close-knit
community living in a small
town in Czechoslovakia. “It
was a very vibrant community,”
Vera said, “without
any discrimination.” But “in
1938 when Hitler dismantled
Czechoslovakia, it became
part of Hungary and we saw the beginning of
anti-Semitism.”
“Soon,” she said, ”Jewish stores were shut down,
Jewish students were expelled from public schools,
no Jew was allowed to go to university, and labor
camps were established for young Jewish people.”
But the real horror began in March of 1944 when
the German army invaded Hungary. It was then that
Adolf Eichmann arrived “to take personal charge in
the final solution in the deportation of all Hungarian
Jews.” She continued, “… within a few weeks we were
in a ghetto…then we were transported on a train to a
factory… we were all shoved into cattle cars…about
80 people per car.” In the first of many “deceptions”
by the Germans, “We were told we
were going to work in Hungary and
told to keep our family together.”
In truth, the train was bound for
Auschwitz.
Vera went on to describe the
many more “deceptions” the prisoners
were told. Upon arriving at
the camp, for example, the words
“The work makes you free” hung
above the gate. Seeing a ray of
hope in the sign, Vera tried to comfort
her mother and assure her they
would survive. But as they walked
together holding hands, someone came between them
and they were separated. Her mother vanished, and
Vera never saw her again. “She was 48, murdered by
the Germans,” Vera said.
As Vera said in her opening remarks, “For the living
and the dead, we have to testify, to bear witness.”
Her testimony was moving and profound, and the
above is but a small excerpt. No reportage of survivors’
accounts can possibly convey their pain and tragedy or
their courage and strength. It is hoped, however, that
sharing a small part of Vera’s testimony will inspire
others to pass theirs on to their children and grandchildren…
and for their children and grandchildren to
listen...so that the 6,000,000 will never be forgotten.
Vera Eden
16 NORTH SHORE TOWERS COURIER ¢ June 2019