On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I remember those who perished but also those who miraculously survived the darkest period of human history.
Willie Handler, your book, Out From the Shadows, bears witness to these unthinkable atrocities. Yet someone did think of them, and did their best to eradicate the Jewish people. Thank you for your impeccable research and dedication.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day will forever keep their memory alive.
Your question: “Would you have survived?” has been echoing in me. I don’t know. I would like to think I would have, but the camps were engineered not only to kill the body, but to grind down the will to live and I don't do well when I lose my will. So what I’m really sitting with is this: what about me would have kept me from smoking my own cigarettes? What would have kept tomorrow from disappearing?
Reading your father’s story, I’m struck by the spiritual defiance woven through Jewish survival and the insistence on humanity when everything was designed to strip it away. Even when names were replaced with numbers, Jewish culture held tight to memory, lineage, prayer, and the sanctity of life. That endurance feels like sacred resistance.
And it also makes the present feel unavoidable: antisemitism did not die in 1945. It mutates, it hides behind euphemisms, it resurfaces in “jokes,” in conspiracy, in the casual dehumanizing of Jews. Never Again can’t just be a memorial phrase, it has to be a living commitment: to recognize antisemitism early, to name it clearly, to refuse indifference, and to protect our neighbors before hatred becomes policy and violence becomes normalized.
Thank you for bearing witness through your father’s story and your family’s faces. May the memory of those who perished be a blessing, and may remembrance strengthen our courage not only to mourn, but to act.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. Your support means a great deal to me. This is not my favorite day in the calendar but your feedback was very moving. I appreciate your friendship Yolanda.
Willie Handler, your book, Out From the Shadows, bears witness to these unthinkable atrocities. Yet someone did think of them, and did their best to eradicate the Jewish people. Thank you for your impeccable research and dedication.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day will forever keep their memory alive.
Your question: “Would you have survived?” has been echoing in me. I don’t know. I would like to think I would have, but the camps were engineered not only to kill the body, but to grind down the will to live and I don't do well when I lose my will. So what I’m really sitting with is this: what about me would have kept me from smoking my own cigarettes? What would have kept tomorrow from disappearing?
Reading your father’s story, I’m struck by the spiritual defiance woven through Jewish survival and the insistence on humanity when everything was designed to strip it away. Even when names were replaced with numbers, Jewish culture held tight to memory, lineage, prayer, and the sanctity of life. That endurance feels like sacred resistance.
And it also makes the present feel unavoidable: antisemitism did not die in 1945. It mutates, it hides behind euphemisms, it resurfaces in “jokes,” in conspiracy, in the casual dehumanizing of Jews. Never Again can’t just be a memorial phrase, it has to be a living commitment: to recognize antisemitism early, to name it clearly, to refuse indifference, and to protect our neighbors before hatred becomes policy and violence becomes normalized.
Thank you for bearing witness through your father’s story and your family’s faces. May the memory of those who perished be a blessing, and may remembrance strengthen our courage not only to mourn, but to act.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. Your support means a great deal to me. This is not my favorite day in the calendar but your feedback was very moving. I appreciate your friendship Yolanda.