With the memory of the events of October 7th 2023 still very fresh in our minds – and with the hatred unleashed since that day being seemingly ever-present – the recent Yom HaShoah commemoration at the Cemetery in Cape Town took on added meaning this year.
And for someone like me – a 2nd Generation survivor – it’s always a particularly significant day, but now it comes with even greater meaning.
Even though it’s several months since the attacks of October 2023 took place, I still find myself not quite believing that it all happened: largely, I suspect, because I just would never have imagined that a genocidal attack like that could have happened during my lifetime. With my mind still so full of the Holocaust stories I got to know about from just one generation above me, it always seemed inconceivable that a barbaric attack of this nature would ever happen again.
This year, when looking at the learners from Herzlia High School at the commemoration – the school has a big presence at the event every year – I was reminded of an experience I had a long time ago. I was being interviewed for a job in 1995, and the interviewer was a particularly insightful and extremely intelligent man. In essence, he ‘read between the lines’ of the information I’d put on my CV, and worked out that I had a personal tale that the
CV did not tell. As a result, we spoke about being the child of a refugee – a Holocaust survivor from Lithuania – and about how my father’s experience affected me.
When I left, the man’s Personal Assistant took me to the door, and I noticed that she had tears running down her face. She was clearly moved by what she’d heard. She took my arm, telling me that, although she was Jewish and had attended a Jewish day school and had heard so much about the Holocaust during her school days, she had never met someone as close to the events as I was. Listening to me talk about my father’s experience and my own as a 2nd Generation survivor was something that meant so much more to her than what she’d learned at school.
I realise the importance of this incident. It highlights how valuable it is to be exposed to the stories of the survivors. Encountering an actual person and their story makes the theoretical history much more meaningful.
That’s why it’s so important for us to continue hearing Holocaust stories. That’s why it’s so important for us to listen to the personal stories about October 7th. We must remember – and this is how we can remember. ●
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