Holocaust Remembrance Day

 

Today we stood in silence to recognize and remember the voices that ceased to whisper, the memories that refuse to fade, and the people who took a stand and fought for life and freedom from inside the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto. It is a difficult day to describe in words making the acts of this day that much more important. Even now, having been able to reflect throughout the day trying to pull my thoughts together and having written about this in the past, I am struggling to string the words together to form this simple post.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this day The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum summarizes this somber anniversary in the following way:

The internationally recognized date for Holocaust Remembrance Day corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. It marks the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. In Hebrew, Holocaust Remembrance Day is called Yom Hashoah. When the actual date of Yom Hashoah falls on a Friday, the state of Israel observes Yom Hashoah on the preceding Thursday. When it falls on a Sunday, Yom Hashoah is observed on the following Monday.

There is no set list of rules or means of observance for the general public and eve the means of observance in the Jewish community outside of Israel varies. However, in Israel, it is a national memorial day and public holiday. And while many in the United States have a certain perception when it comes to the term memorial day, this day is marked a little differently in Israel. In fact, there is a moment during the day that people outside of the holy land would find hard to believe as the Jewish State literally comes to a halt and honors this day in the best way that they can… in silence.

For me, today is one that I take a moment to appreciate all that I have and all that I have been given, large and small. On this day, as the hours pass, I grow increasingly grateful for the most overlooked gift which we are all given… life. It is that gift which we all have in common that makes us step back for a few moments and think about the ways that people embrace that gift living a loving and faithful life and those that use that gift to persecute others for the differences that they perceive in them. It is that dichotomy that forces us, at times, to fight for the freedom to live.

With the setting of the sun, the day came to an end and brought with it the dark of night that so many millions never escaped. But tonight we are grateful for the stars in the sky that will be only temporary and watch over us as we sleep. When we wake in the morning we will have the opportunity to once again embrace that precious gift that continues to both amaze and confuse us. We have another day to live and a life to fill with memories.

Full Circle

As you may recall from my resolution post at the very beginning of the year one of the many things that I wanted to focus on this year was to get back to my creative writing roots. The overall goal was to resume writing poetry and stories, pursue publishing them, and doing the occasional reading. While my time is still very limited leaving me little time to pursue these efforts I have been presented an opportunity this week that should get me back on the right path in this endeavor.

For those of you who don’t know, I was rather active in the Philadelphia and Boston area poetry scenes about a decade ago. Since then, time and other objectives seemed to have stymied that creative outlet and it has been a struggle trying to return to that eclectic world ever since. This week proved that sometimes things come full circle when we are least expecting them.

On my LinkedIn profile I have a sample of one of my more popular poems which has been published multiple times in various literary journals, an anthology, and a part of my own small collection (i.e. chap book). Many of the people I have connected to through LinkedIn are from those days in the poetry scene and every once in a while I get the occasional correspondence usually just checking in and seeing if I am still writing. However, this latest message was very specific in its purpose… I have been asked to write an article about Janusz Korczak.

The goal is to complete the 3,000 – 4,000 article by the end of next month with publication scheduled for April. While I have some knowledge still remaining in my mind on the subject and about Korczak’s life, I am going to have to do some extensive mining to recover those raw ore that will power the story. Nearly ten years is a long time between writing projects on a specific subject especially when I am going to have to rediscover my academic writing side.

It will be a challenge and one that I am heading into with some trepidation but I am looking forward to reading the end result. It will not be a scholarly piece but it will serve as an introduction to an astounding life. It will be a means to make history more accessible which was the original goal of my poetry in the first place. This is precisely the reason why I said that this project is going to bring me full circle.

So, what was the poem that sparked this project and inspired a local literary editor to contact me? I could just direct you to my LinkedIn profile but I’m not going to do that. I have included the poem below. I hope that it sparks the same kind of curiosity in you that it has in others.

A Pure Breath

“What matters is that all this did happen.” – Janusz Korczak

The boy pushed away sleep and,
blinking his silent eyes in the candlelight,
he listened to Korczak’s voice.

Echoing above the soldier’s
ash-muffled steps, the only
sound in the camp was
the doctor’s paper cracking
like a stiff flag in a sharp
breeze as he chiseled lead
onto what once was white.

Despite his arthritic fingers,
he had written hundreds of
pages in the ghetto;
but these were the first
curled letters of his Kaddish.
This was his last leaf of script;
the last journal entry which
would never leave his hand.

This was his voice that would rain
down with his body and
rest in the lungs of Treblinka.