Thousands of people gathered today at Temple Emanu-EI, out side on Fifth Avenue and inside the sanctuary, for the annual ceremony marking Yom Ha-Shooh and the 39th anniversary of the the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
In a somber ceremony attended by ruvivors of the Nazi concentration camps and those who fought in the ghetto resistance movements, speaker after speaker attacked revisionist historians who claim the Holocaust a hoax or who distort the truth of the Nazi crimes which took the lives of on estimated six million Jews.
Addressing the gathering was noted author Eli Wiesel, himself a survivor of the concentration camps. He accused those “vicious, ugly, morally demented” revisionists who deny the Holocaust as taking sides with “the killers.” He stressed that is imperative for those survivors to retell the story of the Holocaust as a tribute to those who perished at the hands of the Nazis.
Benjamin Meed, president of the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization (WAGRO), sponsor of the event, stressed a similar theme in his opening remarks to the filled synagogue. “We find our tragedy minimized by some–vulgarized by others– and even completely denied,” Meed declared. But he stressed that those whosurvived “must speak out, must bear witness as the truth of the Holocaust is obliterated…” He called the revisionists, “the distorters of history.”
“It occurs to me, that perhaps the most potent force that we can rise against the revisionists, the deniers, and the slanderers of our tragic past, is our statement, ringing loud and clear — We are here” he said.
ARENS: THE STRUGGLE IS NOT OVER
Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Moshe Arens, said that today, the struggle is still not over. He noted that Jews have Israel and a Jewish army capable of defending it against “tenor and aggression.” He said that when Israel is asked to make concessions, “to accept risks and let down our defenses,” the answer “must be clear.”
Arens emphasized that Israel will not take the risk of facing another onslaught that could threaten the Jewish people’s very existence. “This we recall and state on the day when the banner of life and revolt was raised in the Warsaw Ghetto,” he said.
With Metropolitan Opera tenor Misha Raitzin chanting memorial prayers and ghetto songs, school children marched on to the presidium to light memorial candles for those killed by the Nazis, Following this, six survivors, joined by their children, lit six large white candles in memory of the six million Jews who perished. Following the lighting of the candles, Kaddish was chanted by Hirsh Altusky.
Also, as part of the final ceremonies today, there was a re-enactment of the reading of the Legacy of the Holocaust which was part of the final ceremonies culminating last year’s World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust survivors in Jerusalem. Joseph Tekulsky, survivor of Warsaw, read the Legacy, while Joyce Celnik, daughter of survivors, read the Pledge of Acceptance. It was the first time this ceremony was performed in the United States.
Also announced at the mass memorial gathering today were plans for an American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors in Washington, D.C. in 1983 to mark the 40th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Similar to last years’ World Gathering, the four day meeting from April 11-14, represents “an important change (that) has taken place in Jewish life, not only in Israel, but throughout the world,” according to Jack Eisner, vice president of WAGRO who made the announcement. “The survivors have become a voice to be heard and a force to be reckoned with.”
REAGAN SENDS MESSAGE
In a message to the gathering, President Reagan said that the historic uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto 39 years ago is “a shining example of mankind’s struggle for dignity” and serves as “an inspiration to those striving for freedom throughout the world.”
“The Warsaw Ghetto uprising marks the unparalleled courage and determination of a people to resist one of the most treacherous and brutal tyrannies in all history,” the President’s statement declared. “The men and women who endured fighting, torture, and extreme privation to oppose great evil fully demonstrated for the entire world the heroism of the human spirit. The terrible spectre of death camps and savage oppression are a memory this and following generations must never forget.”
As part of the statewide Holocaust memorial observances, Governor Hugh Carey proclaimed Tuesday April 20, corresponding to the 27th day of Nissan, as “Holocaust Commemoration Day.” Mayor Edward Koch proclaimed today “Warsaw Ghetto Commemoration Day.”
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.
