Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day)

(Today is Yom HaShoah. I originally wrote and posted this to my previous blog on 04/19/2007.)

Readings:

Debarim (Deuteronomy) 4:30-40
Hitgalut (Revelation) 6:9-11

The Roman date of April 15, 2007, was the day set aside as Holocaust Memorial Day this year. I still vividly remember visiting the Dachau concentration camp in Germany when I was 12 years old. It was almost impossible to believe that what happened there actually truly did happen even though we could see all of the pictures in the museum, walk where the barracks were and touch the ovens in the crematorium. The mind just doesn't want to comprehend such evil actually taking place.

Today in the news, we are hearing the same rhetoric that was heard from Germany 70 years ago. Not only do we hear voices calling for the extermination of Jews and that Israel should be wiped off the map, but we also hear chants of "Death to America". Not only that, but there have already been genocidal campaigns in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo and Darfur.

It is sad to see the same indifference to evil that manifested back in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. As one Holocaust survivor put it: "When someone tells you he wants to kill you, believe him." We need to wake up and stand fast against evil instead of remaining in denial about it.

No matter what evil may be happening, we need to remember that YHWH is Elohim and put our trust in Him.

Deu 4:39 "And you shall know today, and shall recall to your heart that יהוה Himself is Elohim in the heavens above and on the earth beneath; there is none else.
Deu 4:40 "And you shall guard His laws and His commands which I command you today, so that it is well with you and with your children after you, and so that you prolong your days on the soil which יהוה your Elohim is giving you for all time."