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6
Holocaust Memorial Service
If you were at the synagogue on the eve before Anzac Day and participated with us in the
Holocaust memorial service, I am sure that you and the 30 or so other people who came
along, felt that there was more depth to what was said, than just reciting the Kadish and
other prayers.
It was recalled that those who died were all separate individuals, not just one of a large
number of people, who perished in the greatest of tragedies, that has befallen Judaism.
One of those who did not survive, wrote on a wall in Terzin, " I hope that someone will
remember, that there once was a Jew called Hans Sonnenschein".
In part the accent of the evening was an undertaking by younger Jewish people not to
forget the Hans Sonnenshceins. Nor the bravery of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto who
fought the Nazis to the bitter end. The courage of those who despite terrible hardships,
joined the partisans in the forests of Poland and other Eastern European countries.
Jews who cared for the sick, the children and the old people in Terezienstadt, refusing to
have their spirit broken, despite knowing that they were more than likely never to return,
when it was finally their turn, to be taken to the next stage of the Nazi pogrom.
We thought of people like Hannah Szenes, a young Jewish Hungarian born woman, who
first of all managed to escape to Israel. Then, in order to assist those left behind, she
secretly returned to the country of her birth, was caught and after a sham trial, was
executed.
Six candles were lit, in memory of them all.
It is our prayer that the oldest synagogue in Australia will for many years to come be the
venue for local people and their friends to stop to remember. To remember the six
million individual Jews, like you and I, whose only crime was that they were born Jewish.
I would like to thank those who came and those who participated on the night.
Eleanor Levi not only read part of the memorial service, but also beautifully played a
piece by Bach, which was very suitable for the occassion. Other readers were: Pam
Johns, Shirley Schlesinger, Bill Stuart, Michal & Kim Golebowicz, who also sang, Len
Freedman who led the end prayers in Hebrew, and last but not least Clare and Susan
Steenbergen, who were also involved in programming the evenings events.
See you next year.
Tom Schlesinger.
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