The Good Girl Gone Blog

Today is Yom Ha'shoah, also known as Holocaust remembrance day. When I was younger and attended a Jewish day school, we always gathered together in the auditorium for a special Yom Ha'shoah program. Usually, the administration would bring in a guest speaker, a Holocaust survivor, who would tell his or her story.

As difficult as it was to listen to and comprehend the horror stories of the survivors, we all knew it was important. The Holocaust was a tragedy of epic proportions, something we can NEVER forget. Too soon there will be no survivors left and it will be up to us to share their stories.

We all must remember the Holocaust. Whether you're Jewish or Christian, gay or straight, young or old, American, Israeli, German...it is everyone's responsibility to make sure it never happens again.

In Israel, a siren is sounded every year on this day at 10:00 AM. Everything stops. People get out of their cars and stand on the street. For those few moments, the country is united and everyone remembers. It was just three years ago that I myself was sitting on a bus in Be'er Sheva, a city in southern Israel.

It's still so clear in my mind. I was late for work that day and was in terrible a rush. Though I knew the siren would go off  and was aware that traffic would cease, I was still amazed. As the siren's loud cry echoed through the streets, my bus stopped. Everyone around me froze. The driver and everyone on the bus stood up in pure, chilling silence.  People got out of their cars, bowed their heads in silence and stood, frozen, until the siren's cry ended. I'll never forget that.

I'll leave you with this poem, written by a young boy, Pavel Friedman, who died at the hands of the Nazis in Auschwitz. He was only a few years older than I am today...

The Butterfly

The last, the very last,

So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.

Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing

against a white stone. . . .

Such, such a yellow

Is carried lightly 'way up high.

It went away I'm sure because it wished to

kiss the world good-bye.

For seven weeks I've lived in here,

Penned up inside this ghetto.

But I have found what I love here.

The dandelions call to me

And the white chestnut branches in the court.

Only I never saw another butterfly.

That butterfly was the last one.

Butterflies don't live in here,

in the ghetto.

So please, take a moment today. Stop what you're doing and think about all of the people who lost their lives in the Holocaust. Think about the families that were torn apart by the Nazis. Think of the children who were forced to grow up all too soon.

We must never forget...