Holocaust survivors joined with members of Congress in the Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday for the annual Days of Remembrance ceremony commemorating victims of the Nazi Holocaust.
This year’s ceremony came in the midst of an event-packed week leading up to the opening of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on April 26.
But the main purpose of Tuesday’s ceremony was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
About 1,000 people crowded into the Rotunda, a stately room beneath the Capitol dome decorated with large paintings depicting American history.
“A half a century ago, the world averted its eyes” from the Nazi menace, said Harvey Meyerhoff, chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.
Now, he pointed out, the U.S. government itself “declares forever that we will avert our eyes no more.”
One of the ceremony’s more moving moments came when Metropolitan Opera soprano Roberta Peters gave an impassioned rendition of the Yiddish song “Es Brent” (It’s burning).
The Bronx-born Jewish opera singer received sustained applause and attention, just as she had Sunday at a similar gathering in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Actor Jonathan Silverman, known for his portrayal of Neil Simon’s youthful heroes, read from the final letter of Mordecai Anielewicz, the young leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising who perished at the Mila 18 bunker.
Vladka Meed, the underground courier for the ghetto and a founder of the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization, told of her experiences smuggling weapons into the ghetto as a member of the Jewish Fighting Organization.
A WEEK OF OBSERVANCES
Rep. Sidney Yates (D-N.Y.), a member of the Holocaust Memorial Council, delivered the keynote address with the repeated theme, “This is a day for remembrance.”
Yates, the dean of Jewish members of Congress, recalled how some members of Congress in the war years introduced legislation to try to save 20,000 Jewish children from the Holocaust.
The bill, although supported by first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, former President Herbert Hoover and members of religious groups, died in committee.
And so “20,000 children became numbers” among the dead of the Holocaust, said Yates.
Survivors and others in attendance, including representatives of the Gypsy, Polish and gay communities, lit candles in remembrance of the Holocaust victims from their groups.
Tuesday’s events in the Capitol were but one of many observances, which were to culminate in the museum’s dedication Thursday.
Last Friday, the National Archives put a document from the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials on display to the public.
The document consists of notes, a typed transcript and the official translation of a 1943 speech by SS chief Heinrich Himmler and includes a written reference to the Nazi policy of extermination of the Jews.
On Sunday, clergy from a variety of religious denominations gathered for an ecumenical service at the National Cathedral to commemorate the museum’s opening.
Also on Sunday, members of B’nai B’rith and other read names of about 2,000 Holocaust victims at an annual ceremony on the steps of the Capitol. Readers included new Russian immigrants, children and Holocaust survivors. Similar ceremonies were planned in other cities across the nation and around the world.
And on Wednesday, a tribute was to be held at Arlington National Cemetery to remember the liberators and rescuers of the Holocaust.
Tuesday’s ceremony was part of an annual civic commemoration of the Holocaust, which was mandated by Congress in 1979.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
