27/01/2025
January 27 is the designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
It's been 80 years since the end of the N**i regime. We take this day to think about and remember the victims of the terrible atrocities inflicted by the n***s.
Today is the day I think about my family.
I think about what they went through.
I think about the countless stories my savta told me that brought me to tears.
She was the only one to ever speak to me about what she endured over a harrowing six months in Auschwitz.
I think about my saba and my great grandfather who were sent off to Russia.
I think about how I never met my great grandfather as he never came home.
I think about my saba's determination to stay alive and make it back home to his family.
I think about my zaidy who, I recently learned, had escaped death in a dark forest by running away with a few other kids.
Kids.
I think about my aunt being born in the ghetto.
I think about my great aunt dying of disease shortly after the birth of her daughter.
I think about another great aunt who lost her entire family to the gas chambers, save one sister.
I think about the experiments done on her that took away her ability to ever have children.
I think about the rapes and beatings she went through in order to protect her younger sister.
I think about how my family came together after the war.
I think about how my grandparents met, finding each other on their way to Israel and building a life together filled with love and happiness.
I think about where I come from.
I think about the conversations I have with my child about his family's past.
I learned at a very young age what it meant to be Jewish and I owe it to my family to continue to educate my child.
I learned at a very young age there was such a thing called the Holocaust.
Today is a day where I remember all those who suffered in the name of hate and genocide.
Today is a day where we say never again.
It's enough.
Never again.
*I post this yearly on this day. With antisemitism high on the rise, I want to remind people what happens when we fill our heart with hate.*