MONTREAL — An improvised spoon, a symphony concert, a Lodz Ghetto postcard, a clandestine wedding, an evocative work of expressionist art from Teresienstadt – all were cited as examples of “courage and moral resistance” at last week’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration at Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem Congregation.
These gestures were ways for Jews to maintain vestiges of dignity and humanity in the face of unimaginable suffering, an overflow crowd was told at the event.
Acts of courage and resistance – the evening’s theme – did not have to be linked to armed resistance, although such resistance most certainly took place, noted Marcel Tenenbaum, co-chair, with Jack Dym, of the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre’s Yom Hashoah committee. “Countless acts helped keep hope alive in the uttermost darkness.”
Acts of resistance also included the writing of books and creation of schools – even a medical school in the Warsaw Ghetto. Tenenbaum said the logical subject of research, for lack of any resources, was starvation.
The evening included the presence of community leaders, dignitaries, and representatives from all levels of government, including from Germany. Pierre Duchesne, Quebec’s lieutenant-governor, attended.
Yoram Elron, Israel’s consul general in Montreal, called the Holocaust the “darkest and most horrifying tragedy in the history of humanity.”
Elron quoted Elie Wiesel’s oft-cited statement that indifference remains humanity’s greatest sin in the face of evil. “It facilitated the annihilation of two-thirds of European Jewry… history’s worst crime.”
Elron also cited the Jewish state as a permanent refuge for the Jewish people and a concrete manifestation of how the Jews emerged from the ashes of the Holocaust to create a vital and living land.
Israel’s 60th anniversary, he said, “reminds us how far we’ve come.”
Six brief but poignant Holocaust survivor testimonials on video screens preceded the lighting of six memorial candles by those survivors with their children and grandchildren. The ceremony also included a recitation of names of Holocaust victims by Elie Benchetrit, Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz and Hannah Eliashiv. Each candlelighting included readings and choir performances.
Ruth Fazel’s ambitious work, Oratorio Terezin, was performed by the Vanier College Choir under conductor Erica Phare. It was to be performed a few days later at Place des Arts under Iwan Edwards.
Traditional Holocaust-related songs were performed by the Bialik High School Choir under Lorna Smith.
Before the recitations of the K’El Maleh Rachamim, tehillim, Kaddish, the Partisan Hymn, and the Canadian and Israeli national anthems, survivors and members of the second and third generations were respectively asked to rise, and the promise was made to carry forward the Holocaust legacy from generation to generation and ensure that it not be forgotten after the last survivors pass on.
“We promise to remember and preserve the Jewish spirit that could not be destroyed,” Ariane Day, a member of the “third” generation, told the audience.
Joining her in delivering the promise were survivors Thomas Strasser and Ronit Amsel.