About 500 persons–many of whom fought in Jewish resistance and others who were survivors of Hitler’s concentration camps –walked through pictures of their past today as they viewed the first New York showing of a photographic exhibit entitled “The Holocaust and Resistance.” The pictures were blowups of captured Nazi photographs. The opening of the exhibit at the Herzl Auditorium Gallery, 515 Park Ave.–which on Monday goes on tour throughout the U.S., including college campuses–marked the 30th anniversary of ghetto uprisings in Nazi-occupied Europe. Shown were more than 100 photographs on a 32-panel display.
Stressing the importance of this exhibit in many countries. Ambassador David Rivlin, Israel’s Consul General, said “The story of both the tragedy and heroism and redemption is still unfolding and, as yet, not fully comprehended and not entirely understood by the peoples of the world and not even by many of our own Jewish people. This is a lesson still to be studied by our generation and by many more generations to come.”
HOLOCAUST LESSON FOR FUTURE
Rivlin noted that just “as we have been repeating every year, that each of us must see himself in every generation as if he personally participated in the act of the exodus, so will the future generations of Jews have to repeat the story of the Holocaust, the story of Jewish heroism coupled with the drama of the rebirth of independent Israel, and look upon himself as if he personally was part of all this.” Only then, he added, “shall we retain our historical memory which is a basic condition for our nation’s understanding of its destination and future course.”
Jacob Stein, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, declared that the photos “refresh in a dramatic manner memories of events which time tends to blur and events of history tend to soften. We dare not permit this (blur) to happen.” He stressed that as persons view the exhibit, the message is “we dare not forget,” and he added, that “each of us has a special responsibility to enhance, and preserve, to encourage and protect the Jewish people.”
Eli Zborowski, president of the American Federation of Jewish Fighters, Camp Inmates and Nazi Victims, himself a member of the Jewish Resistance Organization – ZOB – in Poland, during World War II, said, “We, the survivors, consider it our sacred duty to remind the world of the circumstances that prevailed before and during the Holocaust.” He stressed that the exhibit was prepared in the hope that it will stimulate more extensive studies on the Holocaust. He also stressed disappointment that in New York City there is no monument and no documentation center on the Holocaust and resistance.
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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.
