The last day of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors yesterday was one of ceremonies, beginning with a wreath-laying at Arlington Memorial Cemetery in appreciation of the American liberation of the concentration camps at the conclusion of World War II. The wreath was placed on the grave of PPC James King who was picked as a symbol of liberation because he died in the Normandy landing.
The ribbon on the wreath bore the words: “In memory of the American soldiers who gave their lives in the struggle against Nazi tyranny, who liberated the survivors from Nazi death camps.” Miles Lerman of Vineland, N. J., vice chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, delivered the tribute. He said, “We came to your gravesite to pay tribute to you and to the thousands of others who fought and died in an effort to put an end to Nazi tyranny.” Taps were played at the end of the ceremony.
Two hours later under a beautiful spring sky, thousands of Holocaust survivors and others assembled at the west front of the capital for the ceremony in which Vice President George Bush presented a symbolic cardboard key to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to Elie Wiesel, chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.
RECALLING AN UNPRECEDENTED HISTORICAL PERIOD
The first speaker was Mark Talisman, Vice chairman of the Memorial Council, who said:
“These days are a vital link with civilization. These days allow our nation to understand how governments can collapse — how sanity and reason can dissolve, how government can go berserk, setting up killing machinery against a whole people simply because of their origin and against millions of others in brutal acts of war.”
Bush told the gathering, “The Holocaust Memorial Museum which we dedicate represents a promise that you have kept … the commission that your loved ones left you was to remember, and you have remembered,” Continuing, he said:
“Through these annual days of remembrance, the Holocaust Memorial Museum and the work of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council you will be providing continuing redemption for the lives that were sacrificed. And today all of humanity is called upon again to remember the short step from civilization and compassion to chaos, from subjugation to annihilation, from anti-Semitic slogans to the death industry.”
Bush added: “Although all Jews were victims, not all the victims were Jews so at this biggest gathering in Jewish history, we are pilgrims joining together in mutual trust, a trust that we believe in the ultimate triumph of good over evil. Never again in the history of man will we allow human rights to be so viciously abused.”
In accepting the key from Bush, Wiesel stressed that the museum will be a center of collection and learning. He said that names will be collected in all languages, including Yiddish and Ladino for those killed, and that the museum will be used for studying the histories that were secretly written in the various camps.
Wiesel also swore that ‘we shall avoid cheapening of the experience, cheap slogans, simplistic conclusions and vulgar spectacles.” He said “It is a great day and a great event and both will be remembered by future generations. We shall write about this event with words of gratitude.” He thanked “members of Congress and Senate and the Administration and the American people for having given us this museum.”
‘A CHILLING AND STARK REALITY’
House Speaker Thomas O’Neill (D. Mass.) told the thousands gathered that “for those of us who lived through the Holocaust years, the Holocaust occurred as a chilling and stark reality, but to more distant generations it may seem impossible that a civilized society could degenerate so completely.”
O’Neill added: “We are not here to simply memorialize those who did not survive: our concern is with the future as much as the past. We must make certain that the people of our nation never close their eyes to persecution and to the violations of basic human rights. This is not simply a Jewish issue. This is not alone a Jewish museum. This is an issue that is of concern to all who enjoy the privileges of freedom. It is a museum that must teach all visitors that citizens pay a price for this privilege — moral responsibility.”
Although it was not mentioned yesterday, the museum will be funded entirely from private contributions.
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.
