A Day of Remembrance, a Life’s Task Unfinished : Holocaust: A survivor finds the terror that she overcame repeating itself in other lands.

World War II Europe will forever stain the pages of history with gruesome details of the most brutal side of human nature--the Holocaust. On Sunday, the wounds of the Holocaust will again be reopened when the Jewish community comes together on Yom Hashoah, our annual Day of Remembrance. It is then that we commemorate the loss of 6 million Jews who perished without reason under the bloodied hands of a crazed dictator.

As a survivor of Nazi prison camps, I embrace the Day of Remembrance with fervor, although for myself it is no more painful than any other day, for I have not forgotten. I have seen the mourners joined in sorrow and among them the survivors; yet each year I see fewer and fewer, until one day, I fear, there will be no one left who remembers.

God has made it clear to me why he allowed me to survive while my family and everyone around me succumbed to painful and meaningless death. He allowed me to survive so that I might never let the world forget the atrocity of the Holocaust. Now, with little time left, I fear that my mission has not been fulfilled. As I look around me, I see eyes that refuse to see and I hear those that refuse to listen. I am faced with denial and fear of the truth.

We are all, in some fashion, heirs to the principles of denial. Some refuse to believe that the Holocaust ever existed, and while they deny it, it is upon us again in countries like Bosnia. My greatest fear is that in our ignorance, the events of the Holocaust will be perpetuated, either masked in more subtle forms of inhumanity or blatantly revealed in events that surround us in all countries and among all kinds of people.

It is incomprehensible that in such a world of constant advancement and intelligence we have not found a way to advance our own humanity. We have made incredible leaps in areas of technology and science, but we have fallen far behind in our compassion and ability to communicate peacefully to others. Perhaps we have found it easier to deal with machines than with emotions.

As I looked through the barbed-wire fence of a Nazi prison camp, my courage to survive drew from the desire to become part of a better world. I wanted this better world to listen to my story and never to forget the powers that forced to me to overcome a barbed-wire hell. I have survived the Holocaust even though my spirit has faced insurmountable odds. As a people, however, we continue to live in a world of hatred and denial because we have not overcome the past.

Although Hitler is dead, the forces able to ignite such catastrophe are not. Denial of their reality would be fatal to us all in the human family. The Holocaust was not only a crime against the Jewish people, for all who opposed Hitler were annihilated, regardless of religion or class. The greatest protest to such immorality would be for everyone to share in remembering and to vow that such a tragedy will never occur again. Let us heal the wounds and not bury the truth with the 6 million lost.

Each year that I join my Jewish community in the Day of Remembrance, I realize that one more year has passed and I have still not fulfilled the purpose God meant for me. I have little time and little strength left; therefore, I am appealing to all for help in reaching the goal that has become for me the purpose of my survival: Let us join hands under the banner of brotherhood and pledge that no people will ever again bear a terror such as the Holocaust.