"To forget the Holocaust, he always said, would be to kill the victims a second time."
I am saddened to hear of Elie Wiesel's passing. He was an incredible person. I treasure the occasions when I was able to meet and speak with him, with my husband Marc. His legacy will not be forgotten. We must remember the horrific events of the Holocaust, both to honor those lost, and so that it never happens again.
His perseverance in the fight against genocide and violence worldwide is well-described here in the Washington Post's obituary.
The New York Times writes: "...He was defined not so much by the work he did as by the gaping void he filled. In the aftermath of the Germans’ systematic massacre of Jews, no voice had emerged to drive home the enormity of what had happened and how it had changed mankind’s conception of itself and of God. For almost two decades, both the traumatized survivors and American Jews, guilt-ridden that they had not done more to rescue their brethren, seemed frozen in silence." Read their full obituary here.
As the number of living Holocaust survivors dwindles, the onus comes upon those of us in the second generation to keep the stories alive. This is the urgency that I am answering with my project: to remember what happened to my father and his generation, and to speak of it so that he will not be forgotten.