Israeli Premier Menachem Begin declared today that the “independent, free State of Israel” which “rose out of the ashes” of the Holocaust will prevent anyone from ever again trying to destroy the Jewish people. He pledged that the Jewish people will remain united, Israel will keep prepared and able to defend itself and that the Jewish State will continue to seek peace.
Begin made his declaration at a memorial service commemorating the 35th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and the six million Jews who were murdered by the Nazis. The service was held at Temple Emanu-El here where he came directly after arriving in New York from Israel. The annual event, attended by thousands inside and outside the synagogue on Fifth Avenue, was sponsored by the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization (WAGRO) in conjunction with many major Jewish organizations. It was one of many similar programs across the country.
Many in the audience wept during the ceremony as 216 women dressed in black lit 216 memorial candles to the Holocaust victims. Later six Holocaust survivors, each accompanied by one of their children, lit a large candle symbolizing Babi Yar, the Warsaw Ghetto, Auschwitz, the Lodz Ghetto, the partisan fighters and Bergen-Belsen. This was followed by Micha Raizen, a Soviet immigrant who is now with the Metropolitan Opera Company, singing “El Mole Rachomim” and then the entire audience reciting the Kaddish.
Begin told the gathering that the Holocaust happened because of the “cruelty of the enemy destroyer” and the “indifference” of the world both in the East and the West. “The destruction of our people, our fathers, our mothers, our children did not happen in an outburst of barbarism,” he said. “It took six long years.”
The Israeli Premier, however, cautioned both Jews and non-Jews against ever raising the question about why Jews who were in the concentration camps did not fight. He said those who were not there cannot understand the conditions and noted that people tried to maintain a Jewish life, even a cultured life, against unbelievable conditions. But he said those who fought in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising must be praised because they did not fight for their lives, “they did it only for one purpose, the dignity of the Jewish people.”
“DON’T LET THE WORLD FORGET”
Benjamin Meed, WAGRO president and chairman of the United Commemoration Committee, said Holocaust survivors must not allow anyone to separate those who were partisans from those who were not. He said using a gun was not more heroic than a mother denying herself food to feed her child, nor was hurling grenades braver than the attempts to keep schools open for Jewish children in the ghettos and concentration camps.
In another address in Yiddish, Meed said “don’t let the world forget” and urged the survivors to “tell it to your children and your children’s children.” Elie Wiesel, the novelist and Holocaust survivor, also stressed the need for passing on the history of the Holocaust and expressed the fear that once the survivors die there will be no more to remember what happened.
Walter J. Fallenz, of San Antonio, Texas, a retired army colonel, who led the American troops that liberated Dachau 33 years ago, described the horrors he saw there. His voice broke down frequently with emotion. “You and I must educate the youth of today of the tragedy of yesterday so we can prevent the atrocities of tomorrow.”
New York Gov. Hugh Carey, who, as an army major participated in the liberation of the concentration camp at Nordhausen, said there should be a monument to the Holocaust victims in New York City. New York City Mayor Edward Koch said the best way to memorialize the six million Jews who died in World War II “is a free and independent State of Israel” that receives full support of the United States.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
