Community Yom Hashoah memorial event held at WW2 Museum on Tuesday
By ALAN SMASON, Special to the CCJN
The New Orleans Holocaust Memorial Committee held its annual community wide event to honor the memories of the six million Jews slain during the Shoah and those survivors who settled in New Orleans after World War II. The event was held for the second year in a row at the National World War II Museum’s Boeing Pavilion.
Touro Synagogue Senior Rabbi Katie Bauman interviews Father Patrick Desbois, the author of “Holocaust by Bullets.” (Photo courtesy of National World War II Museum)
Following a reception for the public, Peter Crean, the museum’s vice president of education and access, welcomed everyone to the museum and thanked co-sponsors of the event, The Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, the Museum of Southern Jewish Experience and Loyola University.
“Yom Hashoah is the day we remember those who were systematically murdered in the Holocaust and honor the heroism of the survivors, the resistance fighters and their liberators,” Crean said in his welcome remarks.
“Now, more than ever, in the face of continuing widespread antisemitism and the voices of those who would – despite all evidence to the contrary – deny that this tragedy ever occurred, it’s critical that we share the experiences of those who survived the Holocaust. Their stories serve as warning to history of the dangers of ignorance and hatred.”
Co-chairs Ruth Rosenblat Loeffelholz and Roslyn Fuksman Morris, the daughters of New Orleans Holocaust survivors of blessed memory, added their welcomes to the crowd, noting they grew up together and have but a few extended family members left.
The family of Holocaust survivor Mark Rubin, z’l, including Carin Rubin, center, lights the third candle. (Photo courtesy National World War II Museum)
Morris said she was responsible for recommending Father Patrick Desbois, a Catholic priest and Holocaust researcher who she first saw featured on a segment of “60 Minutes” a decade ago. She said she was delighted he was able to be on the program to speak about his book “The Holocaust by Bullets” in which he painstakingly has catalogued the mass executions and gravesites left behind by Nazi death squads in Eastern Europe. It is estimated that over one and a half million people were slaughtered during the period Desbois has investigated, which eventually led to the “final solution” of the death camps.
Loeffelholz added her thanks to photographer John Menszer for the number of large portraits of Holocaust survivors he had photographed in the past that are now digitized and were prominently displayed at the entrance of the Boeing Pavilion.
She was also delighted that the event, previously held for many years at the Uptown Jewish Community Center, was partnered with the museum.
“We look forward to continuing our partnership and thank you all for joining us as we come together to honor the memory of the victims, to celebrate the resilience of the survivors and to reaffirm our dedication to promoting tolerance, compassion and understanding in our world,” Loeffelholz said.
The first candle on the Holocaust Menorah built by survivor Isak Borenstein, z’l, is lit by (l-r) Jennifer Fertel, her mother survivor Lila Skorecki Millen, Anne Skorecki Levy and Robin Levy. (Photo courtesy National World War II Museum)
A small chamber ensemble played reflective music to accompany the annual procession of Holocaust survivors led by sisters Anne Skorecki Levy and Lila Skorecki Millen. They were each accompanied by their children and grandchildren and then followed by second and third generations of Holocaust survivor family members of other survivors. Each group placed memorial candles at the front of the Boeing Pavilion, where the event was held on the National World II campus.
“Yom Hashoah is not simply a day on the calendar,” mused Rabbi David Cohen-Henriquez of Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation, who spoke next. “It is a rupturing time that we return to each year, a moment to hold memory that is too vast to contain and too sacred to forget.”
The rabbi noted the six million Jewish lives lost and the other millions lost during World War II as a result of the virulent antisemitism embraced by the Nazis in “a world broken by violence.”
“Yet tonight we not only remember the past, but also confront the present,” Rabbi Cohen-Henriquez continued. “We are living in times that carry frightening echoes of what came before. We see it on campuses, in political halls, on social media and on the streets: hatred toward Jews unleashed across ideologies and nations from all sides of the political spectrum and all walks of life. This is the oldest hatred in the world and it always finds new disguises.”
Gates of Prayer cantorial soloist Jordan Lawrence sang both “The Star Spangled Banner” and “Hatikvah,” while Temple Sinai Cantor Rebecca Garfein was also featured on the program.
After a special Holocaust menorah built by Holocaust survivor Isak Borenstein, z’l, was lit by Holocaust survivors, family members and others speaking at the event, a memorial was held for the dead that included the recitation of the Kaddish and the singing of “Ani Ma’anim” (“I Believe”), also known as “The Hymn of the Camps.”
Holocaust Memorial Committee members and Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans CEO Robert French watch a video at the museum. (Photo courtesy National World War II Museum)
Event sponsor Caren Rubin, a National World War II Museum trustee and daughter of Holocaust survivor Mark Rubin, z’l, introduced a video interview recorded in 2018 with her father and the museum’s historian Robert Citino.
Loyola University vice president for mission and identity, Father John Cunningham introduced Father Patrick Desbois, founder and president of Yahad-in Unum, a global humanitarian organization he founded to research scholarship into the Nazi death squads that exterminated millions of Eastern Europe’s Jewish and Roma communities.
Father Cunningham referred to Father Desbois as a renowned historian, forensic detective and human rights activist.
After a video detailing his work and Holocaust research, Father Desbois made his presentation, which through the years has identified over 2700 sites where the Nazis systematically shot Jews and Roma community members along with gays and the disabled or crippled and left their bodies behind in mass graves.
His work in the field with others was codified in the book “The Holocaust by Bullets,” which Desbois signed following the lecture. It contains much of the research of over 5,500 witnesses he has interviewed. The Jesuit priest, who is a professor at Georgetown University, said of those interviewed approximately 4,000 were non-Jewish witnesses or participants in the shootings. Many participants were forced to take part in the executions, but many others were not.
He was then interviewed by Touro Synagogue Senior Rabbi Katie Bauman, who also was provided questions by audience members as well as those watching the live stream broadcast.
