The way that we ensure the memory of the Holocaust is by teaching our children about the stories and lives that were lost.

At Migdal Ohr, the children put on plays and performances honoring the victims of the Shoa and shared the message that life is sacred and worth defending at all costs.

Even in grade school, the children are developing a sensitivity to the darker memories in Jewish history and building a Jewish identity that is conscious of our past.

Rabbi Grossman shared that today, Holocaust Remembrance Day, is part of the Torah commandment to remember the wicked nation Amalek that Hitler and the Natzis were certainly a part of - never to forget their cruelty and evil.

He told the story of the Rebbe of Sanz who lost his wife and 11 children in the Holocaust. As a Natzi pushed the rebbe onto the ground in a labor camp and was standing with his heel in his back, he asked the Rebbe, “Will you still proclaim ‘You have chosen us among all the nations’ to your G-d!”? And the Rebbe replied, “Yes, especially now, I know that G-d has chosen us among all of the nations! Because it is better to be the one who is killed than to be the killer.”

Today is a day to remember our humanity and to look back at all those who were silent in the face of unthinkable atrocities. We must act and speak out when we see injustice and honor the legacy of the 6 million Jews who were killed by ensuring that it will never happen again to any people in history.

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