January 27 is International Holocaust
Remembrance Day says the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum. On this day, Allied forces in WWII liberated
the Jewish concentration camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau. As
the world mourns, it's time also for ora et labora--prayer and work--to end
antisemitism, bigotry, discrimination and persecution. How? By looking to
children, the hope for the future.
Visit a Holocaust museum. Yad Vashem (Jerusalem), one of the Martyrdom Museums at
preserved concentration camps, USHMM in Washington DC., the Holocaust Memorial Center in
Farmington Hill, Mich.
Use Holocaust lesson plans to teach about pogroms, Hitler's Final Solution,
Goebels' anti-Semitic propaganda campaign, concentration camps, ghettos, ethnic
cleansing and atrocities wreaked on the Jews (and others deemed
"undesirable) by Hitler and the Nazi party.
Share stories. Most children
probably didn't know anyone in the concentration camps. But they can write
about how they would feel if it happened to them. Use Torah Tots Holocaust remembrance page for younger children. Evaluate the maturity of
children.
Raise awareness. Talk about why a Holocaust Memorial was defaced. Observe Yom Hashoah, Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day in April. Use
graphics like this poster Midnight East as a writing prompt about how survivors would feel.
Read books and watch movies on
the Holocaust: Life is Beautiful, The Hiding Place, Schindler's List, Number
the Stars, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Night, The Book Thief, I am David,
Sarah's Key. Use discretion as these are horrifyingly real, and too much even for adults. .
Visit a cemetery. Look for a Star
of David to denote a Jewish grave. Place a rock ( a Hebrew memorial). Place
flowers on any grave if you can't find one. A tribute to one is a tribute to
all. Or plant a tree as a sign of life.
