remembering

It’s been seventy years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

My mother was born in 1943 in Czechoslovakia.  She and her family were significantly altered by the war for years, lifetimes even.  I remember as a small child listening to some of her stories in an otherwise quiet, still house–a bedtime routine that would inadvertently turn to questions, which sometimes inevitably unveiled macabre memories.

May we remember, respect the victims and those who fought and continue to fight for the protection of all men, women, and children, and promote peace.

It means preserving places like Auschwitz so people can always see for themselves how hateful ideologies can become tangible acts of murder.  It means sharing and sustaining the testimonies of witnesses so that they can endure for teachers and students around the world their testimonies give to each survivor everlasting life and give to all of us everlasting value. (Steven Spielberg)

Additional images here.