Ceremony honors genocide victims
Irma Lemus
HILLSIDE DISTRICT -- A special gathering to remember one of the
darkest chapters of the 20th Century drew about 100 of all faiths and
backgrounds to Burbank’s Temple Emanu El.
Tuesday evening’s 14th annual “Days of Remembrance” Holocaust memorial
was sponsored by the Burbank Human Relations Council, 15 Burbank churches
and two Jewish temples.
During the event, Daisy Miller, a Holocaust survivor and director of
foundation relations for the Los Angeles-based Survivors of the Shoah
Visual History Foundation, shared her memories of hiding from the Nazis
as a young child.
“It’s miraculous that we survived. There were some children who were
left completely alone. Life was worst [for them] after the war than
during the war because a lot of these children were abused,” said Miller,
who was born in Yugoslavia in 1938 and fled with her family to Italy in
1941.
Miller’s family was taken in by Italian farmers who hid them from the
Germans, she said.
Like other Holocaust survivors, Miller said she struggled with the
painful memories of her childhood for many years.
“It is important to hear these stories and allow them to be told. For
50 years, we survivors were silent and told to put it behind us,” she
said.
Sylvia Sutton of the Human Relations Council coordinated Tuesday’s
event. She said it was important to remember the 6 million Jews killed in
the Holocaust, including an estimated 1.5 million children.
“These days are set aside to remember the victims of the Holocaust and
to remind Americans that nations are capable of evil and bigotry...”
Sutton said.
A candle-lighting ceremony, in memory of the Jews who were killed
during the Holocaust, was performed by survivors. A seventh candle was
lit to remember those killed throughout the world in other genocides.
Prior to the events at Temple Emanu El, there was a 30-minute ceremony
with the Holocaust survivors at City Hall before the City Council
meeting.
As Miller concluded her speech Tuesday, she urged those in the
audience to honor the memory of Holocaust victims by setting positive
examples.
“We are each responsible, on a daily basis, to not forget by being
open-minded and not judging the differences among us,” she said.