“A Nazi guard beat me on my skull until my head was bleeding. I collapsed on the ground… I wanted to do the mitzvah of counting the Omer, so with all my strength, I sat up, said the blessing for sefirat ha-omer, and immediately fell back and fainted. The next morning was quiet. I heard shouts, ‘Mir zenen fray! We are free!‘ I came out of hiding… and I saw American tanks and soldiers and knew that we were bnei chorin – free people!

“A Nazi guard beat me on my skull until my head was bleeding. I collapsed on the ground… I wanted to do the mitzvah of counting the Omer, so with all my strength, I sat up, said the blessing for sefirat ha-omer, and immediately fell back and fainted. The next morning was quiet. I heard shouts, ‘Mir zenen fray! We are free!‘ I came out of hiding… and I saw American tanks and soldiers and knew that we were bnei chorin – free people!

— Rabbi  Menashe Klein, a.k.a Ungvaver Rav, on his liberation from Buchenwald.

We find inspiration in the victims and survivors who showed physical and spiritual resistance.

Most importantly, we resoundingly reject the dehumanization of any people—the same sin that made the horrors of the past possible, and continues to be used to excuse the mass killing of civilians today. 

If our ‘Never Again’ does not compel us to resist genocide, starvation, and war crimes wherever they occur, then we have learned nothing. 

Our commitment to justice is the only true way to honor their memory.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)