Survival
is a privilege which entails obligations. I am forever
asking myself what I can do for those who
have not survived. The answer I have found for myself
(and which need not necessarily be the answer for every
survivor) is: I want to be their mouthpiece, I want to keep
their memory alive, to make sure the dead live on in that
memory."
-Simon Wiesenthal, "Justice, Not
Vengeance" (1989)
Most of the victims of the
Holocaust (Shoah in Hebrew)
were European Jews. In all,
approximately six million Jews
perished, mostly at the hands of the
Nazis and their collaborators during
the second World War. The Nazis strove
to persecute Jews and commit genocide,
all as part of Adolf Hitler's "Final
Solution of the Jewish Question."
During this time, many Jews were
forced into ghettos or sent directly
to internment (concentration) camps.
Conditions in these ghettos were
generally poor. There was great
overcrowding; many starved and died of
disease. Gradually, many of the
ghettos were emptied, as those who had
been forced to live in the ghettos
were eventually deported to the
concentration camps.
In the Holocaust portion of the Museum
of Family History, the story of this
horrible period in Jewish history is
told not only in the third-person, but
also in a personal way, through
first-hand, eyewitness accounts. It is
hoped that more survivors of the
Holocaust will submit their own
personal testimonies to the Museum,
either in a written or oral form, so
that those who wish to read and hear
these accounts will become that much
more knowledgeable about what occurred
during these times.
Photographs
of the concentration camp grounds and
their 'museums' will be displayed.
Links to all pertinent
Holocaust-related websites will be
proffered so that all who are
interested can see the fine work that
other people and organizations have
done in order to educate others about
the Holocaust. Exhibitions showing
photographs of many of the extant
Holocaust memorials in various
cemeteries in New York, New Jersey and
Canada, as well as those in many
locations in Europe and Israel, can
also be viewed online within the
Museum's Holocaust project.
The Museum welcomes all those who wish
to contribute their own personal
account (even those heard secondhand,
passed down from parent or grandparent
to child) of their experiences during
the Holocaust, as well as any family
photographs taken during these arduous
times.
It is
the mission of the Museum to honor and
preserve the memory of our ancestors,
our families. It is hoped that the
presentation of this material relating
to the Holocaust will contribute in
some small but perceptible way to
keeping its memory alive in order to
remind everyone that such a tragedy
must never happen again. |