Yom Hashoah

By Joel Goldenberg

The Montreal community turned out in large numbers last Wednesday at Côte St. Luc’s Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem synagogue for the annual Yom HaShoah ceremony to commemorate the Holocaust.

The Montreal Holocaust Museum (MHM)-organized event, with this year’s theme being “I want you to remember… a childhood lost,” attracted numerous dignitaries, including Israeli Consul-General David Levy, Premier Philippe Couillard, numerous consular officials, MPs including Anthony Housefather of Mount Royal and Emmanuella Lambropoulos (St. Laurent), D’Arcy McGee MNA David Birnbaum and his predecessor Lawrence Bergman; and mayors and council members from such cities and boroughs such as Côte St. Luc, Hampstead, St. Laurent, Dollard des Ormeaux and others.

Ruth Najman, co-chair with Doris Steg of the MHM’s Yom HaShoah Committee, told the large audience that “we are the last generation to hear the voices of Holocaust survivors in person, and to meet and know them. This is both a privilege and a responsibility.”

Couillard praised the Jewish community’s contributions to Quebec, and included Hebrew and Yiddish in his opening greeting. He also recognized Lawrence Bergman’s role in having Yom HaShoah recognized in the National Assembly more than 18 years ago.

“Today, Quebec is your home,” the Premier told the Jewish community. “You are justly proud of your unwavering commitment to sharing with those less fortunate, to building and nurturing communities, and justly proud of this defiant, hopeful and lasting response to the ultimate tragedy of the Holocaust.”

Levy, the new Israeli Consul-General, said that the purpose of Yom HaShoah “is not just to state the facts as they are, but to ensure the memory of the Holocaust remains part of our collective consciousness, ingrained in the very fibre of humanity as a whole. This becomes more important year after year, as each day brings us closer to that moment when the Holocaust will cease to be a living memory.”

Six Holocaust survivors, with members of their families, lit memorial candles. They included:

• Mario Polèse, born in 1943 in the Netherlands, who survived with his parents thanks to “the heroism of thousands of Dutch people — but also thanks to luck, I see no other word.”

• Zissel Farkas, born in 1928 in Romania, who survived Auschwitz with the help of her older sister Suri. Farkas now has three children, 26 grandchildren and 70 great-grandchildren.

• Muguette Myers, born in 1931 in Paris, who survived in the town of Champlost and was liberated by the Americans in 1944. “During the war, I was never afraid when I was with my mother because she had a very strong character and took care of everything,” Myers said.

• Ernest Ehrmann, born in 1928 in the former Czechoslovakia, who survived 10 months in four concentration camps but lost his parents and one of his sisters at Auschwitz. “I consider it to be a great gift that I survived, a gift not to be taken for granted,” he said.

• Eva Verebres, born in 1935 in Hungary, who survived in Budapest as the Soviets battled the Germans in January 1945. She lost most of her family, including her mother. “My children and grandchildren are the living example that Hitler did not succeed completely,” she said.

• Leo Kliot, born in 1929 in Lithuania, who narrowly escaped the liquidation of the Vilna ghetto, and was liberated by the Russians in 1944.

Readings were provided by past March of the Living participants Jeremy Levett and Samantha Bloom, as well as granddaughter of survivors Nancy Sculnick. Cantor David Sebbag of the Adath congregation led the Memorial Prayer, Rabbi Boris Dolin of Congregation Dorshei Emet recited the T’hillim and survivor Max Kulik led the Kaddish prayer. Musical accompaniment came from the Jewish People’s and Peretz Schools Grade 6 choir as well as survivor Fishel Goldig, directed by Jason Rosenblatt.