Ahava Love Letter - "Oskars Needed Again?"

 

“Oskars Needed Again?” “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” John 10:10 NAS

Dear family of friends,

In an earlier Ahava Love Letter I wrote about Little Orphan Chuckie, the abandoned baby squirrel I found laying on the church park ground. At first glance he seemed lifeless. But when I stooped down to look further, I could tell he was breathing, and so I picked him up. A day later I was able to locate assistance for him for needed care. You can read the full story in the letter entitled, “Little Oprhan Chuckie – All Creatures Great and Small – The Lord Loves Them All.” It was a touching story I must admit.

In many situations I try to seek the Lord, to hear what He is saying. He is speaking quite often, and it is my desire to better listen. I want to know His voice clearer, and so I asked Him, “What more do you want to tell me about the baby squirrel situation?”

Following is that which I think He wanted to convey. It begins with a man named Oskar.

In 1993 a movie named Schindler’s List came out on the big screen in simple black and white. That in itself was telling as to how the movie would be played out. Directed by Steven Spielberg, it was a compelling story about Oskar Schindler, the man credited for saving over 1200 Jews from the gas ovens during the Holocaust in World War II. As do most historical films about the Jewish people, and Israel, it helped deepen my convictions in regards to support of the Jews, and others like them who have been extremely mistreated. Another stone had been placed in the strong foundation being built in my life, for His purposes He has planned ahead.

As I watched the film in the Ft. Lauderdale, FL with my good wife Laurie, I was gripped by the compassion Oskar had, as acted out by Liam Nesson. Because of his convictions, he worked to save many of the Jews his private industrial company had employed, from the murdering Nazi death trains and camps. What a testimony of what one man can do if he hears the call and obeys. (I never knew Schindler was a Catholic until very recently, which impressed me when I read more of his biography. Being raised a Catholic myself, it was good to read that. I have included part of his life’s bio below.)

I believe the day is coming when many Oskars will be needed again; those who will be called upon by the Lord to step out in courage and faith, to stand up and be counted in His camp of faith, mercy and love. The night is getting darker, and we will be needed to protect and help defend those among us whom the deceived will seek to steal, kill and destroy.

There is coming a powerful move of the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) upon the true Church and modern day Righteous Ones, as the Jewish memorial museum Yad Vashem calls them. I believe I will be one, and so said to the Lord many years ago, “Here I am. Use me.”

I am preparing myself for that end. I hope you do too.

Ahava (love in Hebrew) to my family of friends,

Steve Martin

Founder/President

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Oskar Schindler

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oskar Schindler (28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) was an ethnic German industrialist, German spy, and member of the Nazi party who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories, which were located in what is now Poland and the Czech Republic respectively. He is the subject of the 1982 novel Schindler's Ark, and the subsequent 1993 film Schindler's List, which reflected his life as an opportunist initially motivated by profit who came to show extraordinary initiative, tenacity, and dedication in order to save the lives of his Jewish employees.

Schindler grew up in Zwittau, Moravia, and worked in several trades until he joined the Abwehr, the intelligence service of Nazi Germany, in 1936. He joined the Nazi Party in 1939. Prior to the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938, he collected information on railways and troop movements for the German government. He was arrested for espionage by the Czech government but was released under the terms of the Munich Agreement in 1938. Schindler continued to collect information for the Nazis, working in Poland in 1939 prior to the invasion of that country at the start of World War II.

In 1939 Schindler obtained an enamelware factory in Kraków, Poland, which employed around 1,750 workers, of whom a thousand were Jews at the factory's peak in 1944. His Abwehr connections helped Schindler protect his Jewish workers from deportation and death in the Nazi concentration camps. Initially Schindler was interested in the money-making potential of the business. Later he began shielding his workers without regard for the cost. As time went on, Schindler had to give Nazi officials ever larger bribes and gifts of luxury items obtainable only on the black market to keep his workers safe.

As Germany began to lose the war in July 1944, the Schutzstaffel (SS) began closing down the easternmost concentration camps and evacuating the remaining prisoners westward. Many were killed in Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen concentration camp. Schindler convinced SS-Hauptsturmführer Amon Göth, commandant of the nearby Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, to allow him to move his factory to Brünnlitz in the Sudetenland, thus sparing his workers from certain death in the gas chambers. Using names provided by Jewish Ghetto Police officer Marcel Goldberg, Göth's secretary Mietek Pemper compiled and typed the list of 1,200 Jews who travelled to Brünnlitz in October 1944. Schindler continued to bribe SS officials to prevent the slaughter of his workers until the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945, by which time he had spent his entire fortune on bribes and black-market purchases of supplies for his workers.

Schindler moved to Germany after the war, where he was supported by assistance payments from Jewish relief organizations. After receiving a partial reimbursement for his wartime expenses, he moved with his wife to Argentina, where they took up farming. When he went bankrupt in 1958, Schindler left his wife and returned to Germany, where he failed at several business ventures and relied for financial support on his Schindlerjuden ("Schindler Jews") – the people whose lives he had saved during the war. He was named Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli government in 1963 and died on 9 October 1974.

Legacy

Films and book

Steven Spielberg (1999)

In 1951, Poldek Pfefferberg approached director Fritz Lang and asked him to consider making a film about Schindler. Also on Pfefferberg's initiative, in 1964 Schindler received a $20,000 advance from MGM for a proposed film treatment titled To the Last Hour. Neither film was ever made, and Schindler quickly spent the money he received from MGM. He was also approached in the 1960s by MCA of Germany and Walt Disney Productions in Vienna, but again nothing came of these projects.

In 1980, Australian author Thomas Keneally by chance visited Pfefferberg's luggage store in Beverly Hills while en route home from a film festival in Europe. Pfefferberg took the opportunity to tell Keneally the story of Oskar Schindler. He gave him copies of some materials he had on file, and Keneally soon decided to make a fictionalized treatment of the story. After extensive research and interviews with surviving Schindlerjuden, his 1982 historical novel Schindler's Ark (published in the United States as Schindler's List) was the result.

The novel was adapted into the 1993 movie Schindler's List by Steven Spielberg. After acquiring the rights in 1983, Spielberg felt he was not ready emotionally or professionally to tackle the project, and he offered the rights to several other directors. After he read a script for the project prepared by Steven Zaillian for Martin Scorsese, he decided to trade him Cape Fear for the opportunity to do the Schindler biography. In the film, the character of Itzhak Stern (played by Ben Kingsley) is a composite of Stern, Bankier, and Pemper. Liam Neeson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Schindler in the film, which won seven Oscars, including Best Picture.

Other film treatments include a 1983 British television documentary produced by Jon Blair for Thames Television entitled Schindler: His Story as Told by the Actual People He Saved (released in the US in 1994 as Schindler: The Real Story),and a 1998 A&E Biography special, Oskar Schindler: The Man Behind the List.

Schindler's suitcase

In 1997 a suitcase belonging to Schindler containing historic photographs and documents was discovered in the attic of the apartment of Ami and Heinrich Staehr in Hildesheim. Schindler had stayed with the couple for a few days shortly before his death. Staehr's son Chris took the suitcase to Stuttgart, where the documents were examined in detail in 1999 by Dr. Wolfgang Borgmann, science editor of the Stuttgarter Zeitung. Borgmann wrote a series of seven articles, which appeared in the paper from 16 to 26 October 1999 and were eventually published in book form as Schindlers Koffer: Berichte aus dem Leben eines Lebensretters ; eine Dokumentation der Stuttgarter Zeitung (Schindler's Suitcase: Report on the Life of a Rescuer). The documents and suitcase were sent to the Holocaust museum at Yad Vashem in Israel for safekeeping in December 1999.

Copies of the list

Schindler's desk at Emalia sits near a tinware sarcophagus with a copy of his famous list inside.

In early April 2009, a carbon copy of one version of the list was discovered at the State Library of New South Wales by workers combing through boxes of materials collected by author Thomas Keneally. The 13-page document, yellow and fragile, was filed among research notes and original newspaper clippings. The document was given to Keneally in 1980 by Pfefferberg when he was persuading him to write Schindler's story. This version of the list contains 801 names and is dated 18 April 1945; Pfefferberg is listed as worker number 173. Several authentic versions of the list exist, as the names were re-typed several times as conditions changed in the hectic days at the end of the war.

One of four existing copies of the list was offered at a ten-day auction starting on 19 July 2013 on EBay at a reserve price of $3 million. It received no bids.

Other memorabilia

In August 2013, a one-page letter signed by Schindler on 22 August 1944 sold in an online auction for $59,135. The letter noted Schindler's permission for a factory supervisor to move machinery to Czechoslovakia. The same unknown auction buyer had previously purchased 1943 construction documents for Schindler's Krakow factory for $63,426.

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Ahava Love Letter #71   “Oskars Needed Again?”  ©2013 Steve Martin 

Date: In the year of our Lord 2013 (08/23/13 Friday at 7:45 am in Charlotte, NC)

All previous editions of Ahava Love Letter can be found on this Blog:

 http://loveforhispeople.blogspot.com   

Here are the last few:

Little Orphan Chuckie (#70)

Demons & Fire Trucks (#69)

I Like Mike (#68)

Disappointed with Small Beginnings? (#67)

Rise Again (#66)

The Cities (#65)

How can You Mend A Broken Heart (#64)

Anxious (#63)

Hidden (#62)

Get Back in the Boat (#61)

Need Money? (#60)

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel became the first German leader to visit the Dachau.

“Even unto them will I give in My house and within My walls a monument and a memorial better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting memorial, that shall not be cut off” (Isaiah 56:5)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the Dachau concentration camp, marking the first time a sitting leader has visited a camp located inside the country. (Photo: Planet Soil News)

On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel became the first German leader to visit the Dachau concentration camp during her tenure.  She delivered a short speech, laid a wreath, and toured the camp.  She also met with survivors, including Max Mannheimer, the 93-year-old president of the Dachau camp committee and a former inmate.  He was imprisoned there in 1944.

Although previous German leaders have visited Nazi death camps outside of Germany, this marks the first time a sitting leader has visited Dachau, located inside the country.  According to Dieter Graumann, the head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, the visit recognizes that Nazi atrocities were not something that happened only outside of Germany, but also “among us.”

Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, the region where Dachau is located, called the visit “a strong and important symbol.”

“There are several concentration camps, like Auschwitz, abroad, and for decades chancellors and German presidents have been travelling to these places of horrible German crimes and taking historical responsibility,” she said.

“But the fact that she’s visiting a location within Germany where these unimaginable crimes took place, that doesn’t happen so often … it shows her determination and will to learn the right lessons from history.”

Dachau opened in 1933, shortly after Adolf Hitler came to power, the first in Germany.  It was a prison camp for political prisoners initially, and served as a model for the camps to come.  Ultimately, over 200,000 Jews, gays, Roma, political opponents, the disabled and prisoners of war were imprisoned in Dachau during World War II, and 41,000 lost their lives.

The plan to visit the camp came up after Merkel was invited to speak at Bavarian conservative rally in the city from which the camp takes its name.  Mannheimer had long been pressing Merkel to visit the concentration camp, and she agreed to take the opportunity to make the visit prior to the rally.

At the rally, she told her audience, “At the time when the camp was operating near here, those who wanted to could have seen and could have heard what was going on. It is today so important that it never happens again that we allow ourselves to decide not to see and not to hear.”  Similarly, in a recent podcast she warned, “We must never allow such ideas [Holocaust denial and right-wing extremism] to have a place in our democratic Europe.”

But not everyone was impressed with the timing of Merkel’s visit.  Merkel is campaigning for re-election in September, and some of her critics saw the move as “tasteless” electioneering.  ”If you’re serious about commemoration at such a place of horrors, then you don’t pay such a visit during an election campaign,” Renate Kuenast, leader of the opposition Green Party, told the Leipziger Volkszeitung daily paper.  The Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper called Merkel’s timing “unwise…on the sidelines of a campaign appearance in a beer tent at the Dachau funfair.”  German historian and Holocaust expert Wofgang Benz particularly criticized the casual atmosphere she created “by laying a wreath and expressing condolences just before going off to a beer tent.

Still, Jewish community leaders hailed what Merkel herself called, “a very special moment.”

Check the site out further: Breaking Israel News website

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Abbas Declares Future State 'Judenrein'

CBNNews.com 

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

JERUSALEM, Israel -- Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas said no Jews, civilian or otherwise, would be permitted to live in the future Palestinian state he envisions.
Abbas made his remarks Monday during a visit to Cairo.

"In a final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli -- civilian or soldier -- on our lands," he said, according to Reuters.

For a man who wrote his doctoral thesis on Holocaust denial, some analysts say Abbas latest statements calling for a Judenrein (Jew-free) state aren't surprising. 

In his dissertation, Abbas alleged that Zionist leaders inflated the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust.

"It seems that the interest of the Zionist movement, however, is to inflate this figure so that their gains will be greater," he wrote. "Many scholars have debated the figure of six million and reach stunning conclusions -- fixing the number of Jewish victims at only a few hundred thousand."

According to Abbas, Zionist leaders encouraged Nazi persecution first so Jews would immigrate and secondly because "having more victims meant greater rights and stronger privilege to join the negotiation table for dividing the spoils of war once it was over."

Abbas spent some 30 years at the side of the late PLO chairman Yasser Arafat.

Editor's Note: Finally telling some truth!

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Remember this lady? Irena Sendler

Irena Sendler

Died: May 12, 2008 (aged 98)
Warsaw, Poland

During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist.
She had an ulterior motive. Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried.

She also carried a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger kids.

Irena kept a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.

The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.

During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants.

Ultimately, she was caught, however, and the Nazi's broke both of her legs and arms and beat her severely.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she had smuggled out,

In a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her back yard.

After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and tried to reunite the family.

Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected.

Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.

Later another politician, Barack Obama, won for his work as a community organizer for ACORN.

In MEMORIAM - 65 YEARS LATER

I'm doing my small part by posting this message. I hope you'll consider doing the same, either via e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter.

It is now more than 65 years since the Second World War in Europe ended.

This blog post is being added as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated!

Now, more than ever, with Iran , and others, claiming the HOLOCAUST to be 'a myth', It's imperative to make sure the world never forgets, because there are others who would like to do it again. 

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Jewelry - Making in the Holy Land

Jewelry-Making in the Holy Land: A Wise Profession for a Peripatetic People Posted: 07 Jun 2013 08:37 AM PDT Assembling rings (circa 1925, Cigarbox collection) Jewels were always the currency of travelers.  Gemstones were more reliable than currency and lighter than gold bullion. Even today, some investors are smitten with a "refugee mentality," financial experts recently told The Wall Street Journal. "If the world gets a computer virus," one explained, "and suddenly you need to move $10 million in 48 hours, gold will set off metal detectors and too much cash gets cumbersome, but you slip on a $5 million ring and a $5 million necklace and you've got no problems." Tragically, that scenario repeated itself  throughout Jewish history.  According to some accounts, prior to the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 a rumor spread that many Jews swallowed diamonds and gold in order to take their wealth with them. Thieves killed many and sliced open their stomachs in their search for treasure.  The Holocaust is fraught with tales of Jews attempting to use gems to buy their escape.  Diamond polishing (1930, Library  of Congress) Diamond cutting on lathes (1939, Library of Congress) Inspecting diamonds (1939, Library of Congress) Since the 15th century, diamond cutting was a traditional Jewish craft,Wikipedia reports. That's when a Jewish diamond cutter in Belgium invented the scaif, an essential tool for polishing.  The first diamond polishing plant was opened in a Jewish town in Eretz Yisrael by Dutch refugee experts. By 1944 the industry employed 3,300 workers in 33 factories in Palestine. Today, Israel is one of the world centers for preparation and sale of diamonds. Today's posting is dedicated to Stella and Jordan -- Happy Anniversary and many, many more  and to Keren B, the jewelry maker and designer Israel Daily Picture website

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Israel celebrates its 65th Independance Day April 15, 2013

Israel’s 65th Birthday: ‘Around Us The Storm Is Raging’ – OpEd
By Uri Avnery -- (April 13, 2013), Euroasia Review

Uri Avnery

“AROUND US the storm is raging / But our head will not be bowed…” we sang when we were young, before the State of Israel was born.

On the eve of Israel’s 65th birthday, this coming Monday, we could sing this rousing song again. And not just out of nostalgia.

Around us, many storms are raging. In Syria, a terrible civil wear is tearing the country apart. In Egypt, after the victory of the Arab spring, the country is still in turmoil.

The Lebanese state is still unable to impose its authority on the various armed sects, and the same is true for Iraq.

Iran is busy advancing its nuclear program, all the while muttering dark threats.

Israel sees itself as an island in the stormy sea, threatened on all sides, ready for the tsunami to hit any minute.

THERE IS something ironic about all this.

The Zionist adventure started with the promise to create a safe haven for the Jews, after centuries of helplessness.

Indeed, stripped of all ideological decorations, that was the central theme of the endeavor.

Everywhere, Jews were defenseless, dependent on the mercies of others. Here, in a state of our own, we would be able to defend ourselves, head unbowed.

In other words, for ages we were the object of history, now we were taking our destiny in our own hands, an actor on the stage of history, a nation among the nations.

Before that, Jews were some kind of ethnic-religious entity. With Zionism, the Jews – or a part of them – constituted themselves as a modern nation, able to defend itself against any enemy.

In this sense, Zionism was indeed a roaring success. Its creation, the State of Israel, is now strong and secure.

OR IS it? Listening to many of our leaders, the opposite seems to be true.

Years ago, Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, the caustic critic of the Zionist establishment, famously asserted that Israel was the only place in the world where the lives of Jews were in mortal danger. As it turned out, that was not entirely exact.

A few days ago, on Holocaust Day, our Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, declared that we are threatened by a Second Holocaust, perpetrated by a nuclear-armed Iran.

The next day, a group of international hackers, animated by pro-Palestinian sentiments, declared a cyber-war on Israel. They promised to inactivate the main institutions of the country, both military and civilian, governmental and private. As it turned out, the attack failed miserably. No significant damage was caused. But before this became clear, former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman responded by comparing the campaign with the Nazi Holocaust.

What is this? Paranoia? Manipulation? Political gimmickry? All of these and more?

IN THE span of nine days, Israel is experiencing three national events. Each with sirens howling, official ceremonies, endless speeches. All TV, radio and print media totally devoted to the subject of the day.

Last Monday was Holocaust Day. The entire country turned to the memory of that awful chapter of history. At 10 o’clock, to the sound of the sirens, the whole country came to a standstill. Cars stopped in the middle of the road, men, women and children got out and stood at attention. Survivors still alive – mostly over 80 – told their horrible stories, listeners shed tears.

At Yad Vashem, Netanyahu made his standard speech – Never again… We shall not… the Iranian bomb… Second Holocaust…

Tomorrow evening will be Memorial Day. The country will mourn for the many thousands who fell in Israel’s numerous wars. Bereaved parents will lay flowers on the graves of their beloved. Politicians will make speeches about the lives so nobly given up for the nation to prevent a Second Holocaust.

The next day will be a day of joy. Without an interruption, the sirens will announce the end of Memorial Day and the beginning of Independence Day. Speeches about the sacrifices of the fallen will be superseded by speeches about the glories and achievement of the state, which rose so miraculously from the ashes of the Holocaust. In the center of festivities stand Israel’s armed forces, among the strongest and most efficient in the world.

The close proximity of these three dates is not accidental. It is a conscious attempt to imbue generations of Israelis with the idea that Israel is under constant threat, like the Jewish communities in Europe throughout the centuries, and that the IDF is the sole guarantor of our national and even individual security.

Many people consider this a manipulation, as indeed it is. Under Netanyahu, this has reached new heights (or depths). Jewish victimhood is bandied about as a totem that sanctifies all our policies: the occupation, the settlements, the oppression of the Palestinians, the rejection in practice of peace based on the two-state solution.

It is also a political ploy. The constant reminders of existential dangers – in Iran, in Syria, in Egypt and elsewhere – are designed to rally the population around the leadership. In the recent election campaign, Netanyahu presented himself as a “strong leader for a strong state”. Never mind that he is actually a weakling, notorious for succumbing to foreign and internal pressures. Fear-mongering is his most effective instrument.

HOWEVER, it would be a great mistake to discount Israeli fears as artificial. They are quite real.

Foreigners are often amazed to hear Israelis asserting in the same sentence, literally in the same breath, that “Israel is a regional power”, and that we shall not go “like lambs to the slaughter”, as Jews were alleged (by Israelis) to have done in the Holocaust. Both halves of this sentence are real. They live side by side in the minds of most Israelis.

No one who has been in Israel on Holocaust Day can have the slightest doubt about the huge impact that the Holocaust continues to have on our minds. Most of us (myself included) have relatives who perished in the Shoah. The profound sense of victimhood, the fears and apprehensions are deeply ingrained in us. It would be almost impossible to eradicate them in a few years.

YET WE must overcome them, because they have no relation with current reality and prevent us from rational behavior.

The simple fact is that Israel is a strong state, and will remain so for a long time to come.

We have a very strong and efficient military, more than sufficient for meeting any foreseeable threat. The Arab spring has at least temporarily removed several military menaces. That is true also for the real or imagined nuclear threat from Iran. No Iranian leader would ever risk the total destruction of his country, with its thousands of years of civilization, in order to destroy poor us.

But a strong military is only one component of security. There are many others.

In 65 years we have built a solid and strong economy, more resilient than much bigger and stronger economies around the world. In several areas, such as high-tech, science, medicine, agriculture and the arts, we belong to the premier world league. Israel’s intimate relations with the No. 1 world power seem safe for a long time to come and of huge advantage in many fields, even given the gradual decline of US power.

The revived Hebrew language is vibrant and firmly entrenched. Israeli democracy, though under constant threat, seems to be able to withstand the onslaught. We can surely be proud of what our society has achieved, practically from scratch.

The only real dangers facing Israel come from within. Mad policies, the continued occupation, the permanent war, the encroachment of fundamentalist religion – these are the real causes for worry.
I AM pointing this out not in order to inflame a sense of triumphalism, but on the contrary.

In Israel, it is the Right which thrives on fear and constantly invents new threats, in order to deny peace and promote a sense of “the whole world against us”. They depict our state as just another beleaguered ghetto, facing a perpetual danger of annihilation.

The Israeli peace camp must resolutely stand up against this world view. Israel is strong, and because it is strong it can take risks, make peace with the Palestinian people and the entire Arab and Muslim world.

65 years ago, when we were a population of hardly 650 thousand people, my generation had this self-confidence. Our heads were unbowed. We must rediscover this now.



http://www.eurasiareview.com/13042013-israels-65th-birthday-around-us-the-storm-is-raging-oped/
 

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Israel Marks Holocaust, Warns World 'Never Forget'

By Julie Stahl and Chris Mitchell

CBN News Jerusalem Bureau

Monday, April 08, 2013

 

The latest version of Adobe Flash Player is required to watch this video. Please click on the link below to download the latest version. Thanks!

Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Museum

- Jerusalem, Israel

 

  

JERUSALEM, Israel -- Israelis remembered the Holocaust on Monday and highlighted the Jewish resistance on the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

 

Sirens wailed as Israel stood still in memory of millions of Jews who were murdered in the Nazi Holocaust.

 

For two minutes, traffic stopped and Israelis paused to reflect on the World War II horrors that came upon the Jewish people -- on those who survived and those who didn't.

 

Visiting Secretary of State John Kerry joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and laid a wreath in memory of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

 

Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day officially began with a state ceremony at Yad VaShem, Israel's Holocaust Museum.

 

Survivors and their relatives lit six torches -- each representing 1 million Jews who perished in the Nazi reign of terror.

 

 

 

This year marked the 70th anniversary of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the first large-scale rebellion against the Nazis in Europe. It became a symbol of the struggle against impossible odds.

 

Israeli President Shimon Peres said the threat of the Holocaust against one nation is a threat against all nations.

 

Meanwhile, Netanyahu made reference to the threat from Iran.

 

"The murderous hatred against the Jews that has accompanied the history of our people has not disappeared," the prime minister warned.

 

With less than 200,000 Holocaust survivors left in Israel, there is concern that the memory and impact of the Holocaust could fade.

 

"I think we are too apart. I think there is not enough remembering, not enough time has passed for us to be so forgetful about what the Jewish people have been through," one Jerusalemite told CBN News.

 

"It's very important for us and unfortunately we were talking about the fact that in about 50-60 years it's liable to be nothing but another blip on history," said an American Jewish man who has children and grandchildren living in Israel.

 

"I do think it's just important that we remember what happened. Our Bible tells us never to forget….We have to depend on ourselves and God," his wife said.

 

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2013/April/Israel-Marks-Holocaust-Warns-World-Never-Forget/

 

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50 New Jerusalem Homes to Be Built for Holocaust Survivors

50 New Jerusalem Homes to Be Built for Holocaust Survivors

Israel's Housing Minister Uri Ariel on Tuesday announced that 50 new homes would be built in east Jerusalem to house Holocaust survivors.

 

By Arutz Sheva staff

First Publish: 4/9/2013

 

Homes on outskirts of Jerusalem

Flash 90

 

 

Israel's Housing Minister Uri Ariel on Tuesday announced that 50 new homes would be built in eastern Jerusalem to house Holocaust survivors.


"These 50 homes, which will be added to those existing homes for the elderly in east Talpiot, will be earmarked for Holocaust survivors," he told Voice of Israel public radio in an announcement made the day after Israel marked Holocaust Memorial Day.


Ariel, who is number two in the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party, went on to affirm that, "building will continue in accordance with what the government's policy has been thus far."


The government "will build in Judea and Samaria more or less as it has done previously. I see no reason to change it," the minister told Channel 10 television, adding that the bulk of housing construction is planned for the Negev desert and the Galilee region in the north.


The Jewish state came to a standstill on Monday morning as a siren sounded for two minutes to commemorate the over six million Jews brutally murdered at the hands of the Nazis. 

Tags: Holocaust ,Jerusalem ,Housing Costs

 

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'Sometimes the loudest response is silence'

Monday, April 08, 2013 |  Ryan Jones 

Israel Today 

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Israel on Monday morning came to a complete standstill for two minutes as nearly every citizen solemnly marked the Nazi Holocaust and the six million Jewish lives it claimed.

As air raid sirens wailed across the country, motorists stopped their cars, school children ceased their studies and everyone everywhere stood in reverent silence.

Immediately after the sirens, official state ceremonies were held at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, while the chief of Israel's army led a march of Israeli soldiers, Holocaust survivors and other Jewish participants through the most infamous of Nazi death camps - Auschwitz.

Israeli army spokesman Eytan Buchman posted the following to his Twitter account:
"Sometimes the loudest response is pure silence. Today a country stood still to say Never Again. Proud to be an IDF officer today."

No matter how many times one hears those sirens, the experience is never less powerful.

An entire nation blanketed in the sound of mournful sirens, an entire population halting all activity to stand in solemn silence. It is a commemorative act likely unprecedented in history.

* PHOTO: IDF Chief oF Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz visits the crematorium at the Aushwitz death camp in Poland

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