Today is day 12 of the counting of the omer. Tonight is also Yom Ha’shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. It has taken me a long time to write this. How do you write of the unspeakable? What can I possibly add?

A single flame, six million memories

Today we had a speaker, Renee Haberer-Krauss who survived the Holocaust. She was elegant, calm, quiet, humble. She was unassuming and powerful. She embodies the words hod b’gevurah. Her story is compelling. She talked about how she had to separate from her parents who by this point were working for the French resistance. It was scary. But her mother prepared her well. Held her all night before the departure. Assured her of her love. Told her that even if she had to go to church, it was OK because there was only one G-d, even if there were different ways to pray to that one G-d. Every in the morning they left. They had to cross the border from France, under German occupation, to Switzerland. It seemed hopeless. She got caught on the barbed wire. However, a German soldier and a Swiss soldier against the odds and at their own risk rescued her and her sister. A nun and a parish priest treated her so kindly she wanted to convert to Catholicism but the priest said that it wasn’t the right time–her parents would not approve and neither would G-d. She survived because the of the courage of others. The strength and the discipline of others.

Holocaust Survivor Renee Haberer-Krauss speaking at Congregation Kneseth Israel

The lovingkindness of others.

Another one who survived was Alice Herz-Sommer who is known as the oldest Holocaust survivor. There was a recent documentary made of her. As best as I can figure it from online sources she is now 108. Again what enabled her to survive was her love of music–her religion–and the love of her parents which she shared with her own son in the camps. She still plays piano!

http://www.arttherapyblog.com/videos/alice-herz-sommer-dancing-under-the-gallows/#trailer

She says, “I was born with a very very good optimism. And this helps you…when you are optimistic, when you are not complaining, when you look at the good side of our life…everybody loves you.” I would add, hHaving that strong sense of security and love really helps. People who are deprived the basic feeling of love, even without the trauma of the Holocaust do less well.

Hod is also about splendor. I am always touched by the poetry of the Holocaust.

The Last Butterfly captures that splendor of every day life, even in the camps.
The last, the very last
So richly brightly dazzingly yellow
Perhaps if the sun tears could sing against a white stone

Notice the sky tonight. The colors and the light. The splendor and the strength. Think of Renee and Alice, their courage to survive and their courage to tell their stories. Think of the two soldiers who had the courage to do the right thing. Think of the priest and the nun. Think of Anne Frank who wrote “It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

Think how you can be an upstander and not a bystander when you see someone being mean to someone else. Think how you can be strong and of good courage. How you could prevent the next Holocaust. Think of the pretty pink in the sky as the sun as about to set.