A story of human tragedy marks Holocaust Remembrance Day

May 2—As rain fell in a gentle drizzle outside, members of the Frederick Beth Sholom and Kol Ami congregations gathered Sunday afternoon to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Although 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, it was not a uniquely Jewish tragedy, Rabbi Jordan Hersh of Beth Sholom told the dozens in attendance at Beth Sholom Community Center.

Instead, he described it as a human tragedy — "a stain on the collective soul of mankind."

"We come together this afternoon not only to ensure that we will never forget the depths to which our humanity sank some mere 70 years ago," he said, "but to remember. Remember that it was ordinary people, who by remaining silent, witnessed the near destruction of a people."

Although Holocaust Remembrance Day — Yom HaShoah in Hebrew — was observed around the world on April 27, the local congregations always mark the memorial on a Sunday afternoon.

This year, they were joined by state, local and national elected leaders, including Frederick Mayor Michael O'Connor, Frederick County Councilwoman Jessica FItzwater, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Del. Karen Lewis Young, who has family members who survived the Holocaust.

Fitzwater, a member of the Beth Sholom congregation, read a county proclamation recognizing Holocaust Remembrance Day, which described the Holocaust as the "state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945."

Although Jews were the primary targets of violence, the Roma people, people with disabilities, gay men, Jehovah's Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war and political dissidents also suffered oppression and death under Nazi tyranny, Fitzwater said.

Remembering the Holocaust is perhaps the best way to prevent past atrocities from being repeated, O'Connor said. But time and time again, around the world, people have failed in this regard.

"And so, every year, we come together in hopes that this will be the year that that remembrance will take hold," the mayor said.

One of the means of ensuring the world never forgets the Holocaust is by listening to the stories of those who lived through it, Hersh said.

On Sunday, Nathan Sadownik, a member of the Beth Sholom congregation, recounted the lives of his parents, Bronia and Israel Sadownik.

To this day, Sadownik, born in the Bad Reichenhall Displaced Persons Camp in 1948, struggles to decide whether he should call his parents Holocaust survivors or Holocaust fighters.

All four of Sadownik's grandparents and many of his aunts and uncles were killed in the Holocaust.

Bronia Sadownik used to say she knew when her parents were murdered, even though she was working in a torpedo factory in Bremerhaven, Germany, at the time. That day, a chill invaded her body.

Nathan Sadownik later shared a poem he wrote to capture the experience of celebrating Passover as a young boy without a grandfather.

In "Reflections Lost," he writes: "Should not my questions be raised / To a man of greater age? / But, none exists in this family whole / A grandfather killed, before he was old."

Van Hollen also recited a poem — "First They Came," by the Rev. Martin Niemöller, a Lutheran minister in Germany during the Holocaust.

The piece offers words of warning for why people must never be silent in the face of anti-Semitism or hate in "any of its ugly forms," Van Hollen said. That's why America must stand with the people of Ukraine and against the "brutal, unprovoked war" of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Van Hollen said.

"It is indisputable that in Ukraine, we are witnessing war crimes," he said, "before our very eyes."

In the audience, Sadownik nodded.

"Absolutely," he said quietly.

Congregation members later sang the Mourner's Kaddish, a Jewish prayer honoring the dead. Cantor Shulie Hersh, who is married to Rabbi Jordan Hersh, recited Eli Malei Rachamim, a prayer for the soul of a person who has died that is usually said at the graveside during a burial service.

Nearing the end of the service, Martin Erlichman, chair of Beth Sholom's Holocaust committee, remarked solemnly that they are the last generation that will be able to talk to Holocaust survivors and people who experienced life in Nazi Europe.

When this crucial connection fades, he said, Holocaust denial will become easier and more mainstream.

Anti-Semitism is already on the rise. Erlichman and other Jews now walk past security guards and metal detectors when they enter synagogues. Swastikas are painted on schools and Jewish centers.

And five years ago, Erlichman watched with chills as white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, chanted "Jews will not replace us."

It is vital to teach every generation about the events and ideology that allowed the Holocaust to occur, Erlichman said. Everyone must be given the opportunity to understand the "horrifying consequence of unchecked hate and ignorance."

"We need to make sure the lessons of the Holocaust outlive the last survivors," he said.

Follow Angela Roberts on Twitter: @24_angier