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The Hall of Names in Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel

We are living proof of the adage of George Santayana and Winston Churchill ,  “those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.  Today marks 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz/Birkenau NAZI death camps, designated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.  Watch the United Nations program commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day.

We commit on this day to remember the six million Jews, and many others, who were murdered in the name of racism and antisemitism,  but we no longer remember.  The last witnesses, survivors and victims to one of the most massive acts of genocide in history are all but gone.  In the  misinformation age, truth is buried in and indistinguishable from lie. It takes active  effort to remember the Holocaust a mere 80 years later. 

Most Holocaust survivors don’t discuss details about the war, a hard thing to do for them to do for so many reasons. Many of us as children of Holocaust survivors grew up with snippets  of the nearly fantastic stories of how the remnant of  Europe’s Jews survived the Holocaust, told haltingly by still traumatized parents and family. Jumping off of a train on the way to a death camp.  Being providentially pulled out of a line destined for a concentration camp .  Hiding for years in warrens dug under a frozen forest floor.  Jewish children deposited in monasteries. The Anne Frank experience of hiding in attics or under floorboards. My father was conscripted into the Polish army, which surrendered in a month;  that’s the only thing that saved him from being killed along with the rest of his destroyed village while he was away.  He survived the war; his parents, wife and daughter did not.  Every survivor has an amazing story, and thousands of them speak to schools and groups across the country; but their testimony is about at an end.

And contrary stories are easy to fabricate.  A query to an AI engine can mask or change the story of the Holocaust completely.  With the witnesses all but gone, the children of survivors need to retell the stories; and  lawyers must be a resource to help them do so. As protectors of justice and equality, our task is to preserve and amplify the truth about the holocaust, against the millions who seek to deny it. 

Today, the world is urged to remember the Holocaust, recognize the blatant antisemitism and racism behind it, and admit to ourselves  that we are not as civilized as we believe.  Before we can guard against future acts of inhumanity, we have to remember, contend with  and learn from what we’re done.  May this day be a point of bright light in the fight against antisemitism and against all forms of hate and prejudice.