Holocaust heroes’ acts remembered
Published: May 7, 2008
Yom Hashoah, better known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, is a way for Jews and non-Jews to commemorate unthinkable loss and invaluable strength at the same time.
Suzanne Vromen, professor emeritus of sociology at Bard College and author of “Hidden Children of the Holocaust,” took this year’s remembrance at Vassar College Sunday to honor those who rescued people from the Holocaust and, in so doing, risked their freedom and the lives of their family members.
“Most rescuers believe they simply did what a normal person would have done,” Vromen told her audience. “By highlighting the gracious acts of this handful of individuals, we honor them.”
An estimated 6 million Jews were murdered in Europe, and Vromen said the nearest estimate of rescuers was a minute percentage of the non-Jewish population.
Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Israel, has recognized more than 22,000 rescuers as being “Righteous Among the Nations.”
“For nearly 10 years, Yad Vashem did nothing of that sort,” Vromen said, adding the concentration was directed toward those who perished in the concentration camps. “Eventually, they adopted the planting of trees as a symbolism to honor the righteous people who risked their lives without any reward for doing so.”
The topic of rescuers hasn’t been addressed on the same level as the victims, partly because many died following the war, and partly because many wanted to forget and move on with their lives, Vromen said.
Despite the lack of records and scarcity of information, it is possible to identify their motivation to save the Jews as the universal sense of shared humanity, Vromen said.
he cited a story where rescuer André Trocmé, a Protestant pastor in the French town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, was approached by a Vichy official who threatened him for protecting Jews.
Trocmé told the official, “We do not know what a Jew is. We only know men,” Vromen said.
Later, during the candle-lighting ceremony, Vassar students read how the Holocaust affected them.
Sophomore Joanna Greene started by announcing she wasn’t Jewish.
“I have not been directly affected by the Holocaust,” she said. “But I am human and that’s enough.”
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: