As much of the world focused on the plight of Kurdish refugees fleeing from Iraqi forces, thousands gathered here Sunday afternoon to remember the persecution of another people: the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis during World War II.
Some 3,200 people of all ages filled a dimly lit hall of the Javits Convention Center to take part in the 48th annual commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and a memorial service for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
A solemn candlelight procession and musical presentation by children from the Abraham Joshua Heschel School set the atmosphere: no clapping for speakers — just weeping for fallen family and friends, amens to memorial prayers, and a mass recitation of the Kaddish.
As in past years, the theme of the day was never to forget.
Benjamin Meed, president of the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization, attributed America’s swift action against the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait to the power of remembrance.
“America heard the voices of the survivors and remembered,” he said. “President Bush, his advisers and the American people understood what was at stake in the Persian Gulf, and we acted to confront and to defeat the tyrant.”
While praising Bush, Meed went on to call for assistance to other peoples facing certain destruction. “Of all peoples, we Jews cannot be silent to the agony of the Kurds and the Shiites,” he said in a statement issued separately.
Meed called members of the Iraqi minority “the victims of a contemporary slaughter by their own murderous ruler, Saddam Hussein.”
Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-N.Y.) and Senator Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.) joined Meed in a call for U.S. action against Iraq.
In his speech, D’Amato said he was “not proud that our country is not taking the lead to bring the brutal Saddam Hussein to trial for his war crimes. The history of the Holocaust challenges this government and the United Nations to take a stand and do something now.”
Among the Holocaust survivors taking part in Sunday’s ceremony was Sabina Anstenberg, originally from Brody, Poland, who would not go so far in drawing parallels between the Kurds and the Jews of World War II.
“We should help them all we can, but their plight is different,” she said. “My family died because they were Jews. The Kurds are being killed because they opposed Saddam Hussein.”
Jeffrey Schleider, age 12, agreed. “The Holocaust was different because no one paid attention until it was too late,” he said.
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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.
