A Day of Remembrance at Luke

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Tracie Forte
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  The horrific events of the Holocaust caused the world to realize the repercussion of turning a blind eye. Everyone claimed such an event would never happen again. However, it is apparent by the "ethnic cleansing" in Bosnia, the murders of over 800,000 Tutsi people in Rwanda and, more recently, the 300,000 people killed in Darfur that genocide has continued to occur.

"It's ignorance, hatred and indifference that are all really dangerous," said Cindy Katz, daughter of Marion Weinzweig, Holocaust survivor. "Education is best and that is what you're getting," she said, referring to the Days of Remembrance event held April 28 in Club Five Six.

As a way to remember the Holocaust and learn from the mistakes of the past, the Luke Air Force Base Community Chapel hosted the 2011 Days of Remembrance with a Holocaust exhibit, liberator and survivor panel, and luncheon at Club Five Six.

The exhibit and ceremony commemorated the 66th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. More than 6 million people were murdered during World War II, wiping out a third of European Jewish population at that time.

"I'm a pretty patriotic American, and I have a 4-year-old daughter at home that's never going to know any of this," said Andrew Taylor, 56th Component Maintenance Squadron electrical and environmental systems technician. "I want to be able to tell her one day that I actually met people and spoke with them about the tragedies that happened. I want to make sure my daughter knows that it's important to know where we've been so she knows where she's going."

Holocaust survivors, Marion Weinzweig, Leo Abrami and Dr. Alexander White, and liberator, retired Capt. Jack Nemerov, shared their stories with the Luke community, to include stories of courageous families and close calls.

"My mother became a champion barterer," Mr. Abrami said. "She would go to Normandy and offer clothing, batteries and other things in exchange for cheese, eggs and chicken. Then we would go back to Paris."

Ms. Weinzweig, one of only two children who survived the holocaust from her hometown, said she was protected by a family that convinced their neighbors that she was a visiting niece. The neighbors became suspicious when she did not leave. At the time, there was a reward for turning in a Jewish person.

"When the Protection Squadron came to interview me, they tried to trip me up by speaking Yiddish to me," Ms. Weinzweig said. "Interestingly enough, Yiddish was the only language that was ever spoken in my family, but, from the minute I was born, they never spoke Yiddish. They only spoke Polish probably knowing they would have to eventually give me away to try and save my life that way."

Captain Nemerov, an American Soldier, said he arrived at Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp opened in Germany in 1945 and was horrified by what he saw.
"They would have a role call first thing in the morning, and those that survived in their barracks had to take out those that died over night and lay them out on the ground so they could be accounted for," he said. "When we came in to Dachau, there were bodies all over the ground."

Grown men weighing no more than 75 pounds walked around the camp as though they were under the assumption that moving would keep them alive.

"At first they didn't believe that we were real, because they reached out to touch the fabric of our uniform. When they felt the fabric was real, with whatever strength they had left in their body, they grabbed our arms and just wouldn't let go. They just hung on. They started to cry, and I admit, we cried with them."

Remembering the events of the past allow us to understand how important it is for us to serve in a country where we have the strength to defend those who are unable to do so for themselves.

"I think it's important for us to understand and never forget past tragedies," said Airman 1st Class Kyle Godsey, 56th Component Maintenance Squadron electrical and environmental journeyman. "Remembering what the Jews and other people encountered and endured during the Holocaust is important to know so it does not happen again."