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Yom HaShoah commemoration - 1943, the year of upri
April 7, 2013
Montreal, March 25 - The annual Yom Hashoah commemoration will be held on Sunday, April 7 at 7:30 pm at the Congregation Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem (6519 Baily Rd., Côte-Saint-Luc). The ceremony helps to perpetuate the memory of all those who were murdered during the Holocaust, to honour the survivors. It reminds us of our collective responsibility to remember the Holocaust and to protect individuals and communities from oppression, hate, racism and discriminatory policies. All Montrealers are welcome to take part in the community-wide commemoration organized by the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre.This year's theme, 1943, the Year of Uprisings, honours the courage of the many thousands of men and women who stood up against deportation and mass murder, risking their lives to initiate uprisings in ghettos (Warsaw, Bialystok, Vilna and Sosnowiec) and death camps (Treblinka and Sobibor). Despite these acts of bravery, 1943 was a year of mass deportation and vast destruction of Jewish communities. Six Montreal Holocaust survivors will light memorial candles, symbolizing the six million Jews murdered during World War II. They will share their memories of 1943 through short video testimonies: Jacob Lev talks about his life in the Warsaw Ghetto, how he smuggled food for his family as a young boy and about his life in a labour camp. Child survivor Yehudi Lindeman describes how he was saved by his mother and other rescuers from deportation, living in hiding until liberation by Canadian soldiers. Leon Calderon shares the story of his deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau from his native Salonika and how he was forced to clean up the Warsaw ghetto, with 100 Greek camp inmates, after the uprising. Musia Schwartz talks about her survival in Warsaw under a false identity as a Christian maid. Fela Ross describes her life in the Lodz ghetto until her deportation to Auschwitz, from there to slave labour in Hamburg and finally to Bergen-Belsen where she was liberated. Baruch Spiegel, the last Montreal survivor involved in the Warsaw ghetto uprising, will share his memories of the fighters and his involvement in the uprising. He will be represented by his daughter, Mindy Spiegel, who will light the memorial candle on his behalf. The commemoration will include poems and short readings in English, French, Hebrew and Yiddish, as well as songs performed by the Bialik High School Choir. A song in Ladino will be performed by well-known soprano and cantor, Sharon Azrieli Perez.Yom Hashoah was declared Holocaust Memorial Day in Quebec in 1999 and in Canada in 2005. A diverse audience, including political and diplomatic representatives, will be present to commemorate the Holocaust and to mourn the millions murdered.About 4,000 survivors still live in Montreal today. A number of them are involved with the Holocaust Memorial Centre, which, together with its Remembrance Committee, organizes the annual Yom Hashoah commemoration.The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre educates people of all ages and backgrounds about the Holocaust, while sensitizing the public to the universal perils of antisemitism, racism, hate and indifference.Media contact: Catherine Person 514-345-2605 (ext. 3026) / 514-892-2605 (cell.) catherine.person@mhmc.ca
