‘thou Shalt Not Despair’ Nationwide Events to Mark Holocaust, Martyrs, Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Times Square will be renamed Warsaw Ghetto Square on April 11. The symbolic change of name will be part of a series of events marking Holocaust Remembrance Week in the New York metropolitan area and in other cities across the country. Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller is expected to issue a proclamation and Mayor John V. Lindsay will designate April 11 Warsaw Ghetto Commemoration Day, according to an announcement by the Manhattan Region of the Zionist Organization of America and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Anniversary Committee.

The date corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar which saw the beginning of the revolt of the Warsaw Ghetto against the Nazis in 1943. Other observances here of the 29th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising were announced by the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization which said that more than 5000 persons are expected to attend commemorative services at Temple Emanu-El on April 9.

The American Federation of Jewish Fighters, Camp Inmates and Nazi Victims proclaimed the evening of April 10 and the day of April 11 as a “Day of Remembrance for Jewish Martyrdom and Heroism.” The proclamation, signed by 60 major national Jewish organizations, will be distributed through-out the US. It urges remembrance of Jewish communities and cultural, religious and benevolent institutions that were destroyed together with six million Jews.

Yeshiva University announced that Holocaust Memorial Day Observances would be marked on April 10 with an address by Elie Weisel on the subject, “One Generation After” the holocaust. The event is sponsored by the university’s six undergraduate student organizations.

Yizkor Meetings Urged

The Chicago Board of Rabbis announced that a memorial day for six million Jewish martyrs would be observed April 10-11 with congregational observances, candle lighting and special study projects by religious school pupils. A program for Holocaust Remembrance Week in Los Angeles was announced by Morton M. Silverman and Cyrus Levinthal of the Jewish Federation Council and United Jewish Welfare Fund Campaign there. The observance will be from April 9-15.

In New York, the Congress for Jewish Culture recalled that the Warsaw Ghetto uprising which began on the first seder night in April, 1943, was an epic battle “not for victory, as the realistic fighters knew from the outset, but for the honor of their people. On the walls of the Ghetto they posted an Eleventh Commandment: ‘Thou shalt not despair.’ It was their watchword and their legacy.”

When the battle was near its end, the few Jews who survived issued an appeal to their brethren throughout the world: “Remember us! Do not forget what we have suffered at the hands of our murderous enemy!….Let our departure from the world in ashes and smoke not be in vain.” Recalling this, the Congress urged American Jews to assemble in memorial yizkor meetings on this anniversary of the uprising in remembrance of the fighters who fell in the Ghetto.