Reflections for Yom HaShoah EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article was originally published on January 29, 2020 in ZWISCHENZEILEN MAGAZIN – LEBEN IN ISRAEL (Israel Between the Lines Magazine – Life in Israel). This year Yom HaShoah will be commemorated on the 21st of April. While there are many personal and important stories shared in conjunction with the commemoration of the Shoah, we hope you will agree that the article featured here brings a different and meaningful perspective to this difficult subject. We would like to thank Jacques Korolnyk for his recommendation. It is reprinted here with the author’s permission. About the author: Katharina Höftmann is a German-Israeli journalist and author of several books.
Comment on Holocaust Memorial Day: We Need Sirens By Katharina Höftmann
I lived for almost 22 years without ever commemorating a Holocaust memorial. It is not that there is no Holocaust Remembrance Day in Germany. It actually takes place today, like every year on January 27, the day Auschwitz was liberated 75 years ago. But the German Holocaust Remembrance Day has no connection to normal life, or to the citizens. Ceremonies are attended exclusively by
40 |Pesach 2020
high-ranking politicians and dignitaries. At most, it flutters briefly into the German living room as a news report, and with the word “Holocaust”, you can be sure that the average German sticks his nose into his beer glass while on his sofa and thinks “not again”. There is usually very little in my country of birth between “never again” and “not again”. So for almost 22 years I was not
