A Moment In Time

Rabbi Irwin Wiener, D.D.

Many of us have seen movies or heard stories or read books about the Holocaust. And most of us received some message or meaning from the experience. But through all the telling there is one theme that is the common denominator: Survival. It contributes to the baseness in all of us. It is a powerful and natural impulse. We kill because of it and we scratch survival out of any hopeful sign. It brings out the worst in us as well as the best in us.

All Holocaust depictions have that unmistakable message. Whether it be Schindler’s list or Sophie’s Choice, or more recent films like The Reader or the newest one, Defiance, we see man’s inhumanity to man and we smell the stench of hatred and despair.

So much has been written about the Holocaust. And yet, truth be told, not enough can be written or said or pictured to allow us to fully comprehend the enormity of the dehumanization of people, the degradation of the human spirit.

And we all bear witness to the fact that truth cannot be substituted by madness. Only complacency can hide the truth from us. Even those among us today, who declare that the Holocaust is a figment of someone’s imagination, will one day understand that truth may be manipulated but only because of the willingness of the family of man. Truth is the one weave in the fabric of humanity that is eternal as is the message we bring to keep the memory alive.

We are left to not only be witnesses but also to try to make sense of it all. The survivors of this unimaginable dehumanization of spirit and flesh are the true observers of the two faces of society; the dark side, which never sees light and the light side which hides from the darkness.

We are also left to remember because that is a holy mission. To remember is part of the understanding of the tragic episode it represents. There is no one answer as there is no one explanation that would allow us to have closure.

All too often we hear, “Haven’t we seen enough?” “Haven’t we cried enough?” “Haven’t we repented enough for not lifting our voices and shouting to the world that we are suffering and if we suffer all of humanity suffers with us?” “How many times are we going to be shown the horrors?”

Well, the chapter will never be closed for that would certainly desecrate the memory of those who have no one to say prayers or light candles of tell tales of their lives. Scribbled on a piece of paper one of the lost souls wrote: “I should like someone to remember that there once lived a person named David Berger.” We must never let this chapter end because of all the David Berger’s who are nameless and faceless. We will never finish the story because, in truth, it has no ending. The struggles of life and the tortures of memory will never complete the tragic retelling of the souls that are weeping because they are afraid we will forget them.

The ranks of those who suffered and those who were liberators are thinning. Soon only memory will be the torch that is carried to the next generation. And we cannot allow this chapter to be minimalized or trivialized because then it just becomes a moment in time.

The smoke is still shifting with the wind and it carries the vestige of a generation who were consumed by hate and indifference. We must remember their sacrifice and just as we have survived so to their memories shall remain with us forever. And each time we watch a film, or tell a story of someone we never knew who was lost, or try to imagine the million children who looked at us in disbelief – each time we remember we resurrect a soul, which symbolizes the re-birth of values and benevolence and blessing.

So remember – remember the depths to which we may sink – for survival. For after all – we cry because so many were lost and we stammer to find the words of understanding. We pledge that this will never be just a moment in time.

Now the lifeless skulls add up to millions.
The stars are going out around you.
The memory of you is dimming; your life will soon be over.
Jewish seed and flowers are embers.
The dew cries in the dead grass.
The Jewish dream and reality are ravished,
They die together.
Your witnesses are sleeping:
Infants, women, young men, old.
All have fallen into a dead and everlasting peace.
(Union Prayer Book-The Days of Awe)