"Take heed...lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and...teach them to your children and to your children's children." Deuteronomy 4:9
"Never think there is an easy way to make an end to such bitter memories...Never think there is a way to forgive the hate in the human heart...or an easy way to believe that the worst has occurred and is past. Only know that hope lives when people remember." Simon Wiesenthal
It requires courage to remember the Holocaust: to squarely face the images of such remorseless evil; to ache for the unconsoled grief of children and parents; to experience the emptiness and loss; to read the unimaginable testimonies to the twisted, vicious inventiveness of the human mind; to move into that shadow of doubt that the Holocaust continues to cast across the morality of all people and nations.
But if the lost lives of these millions are to have an enduring meaning, we must remember and be vigilant. Then the ashes and unmarked graves of these victims can become the sanctified ground from which human hope, tolerance and moral courage will rise.
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