Solly ganor remembrance quotes

I deeply regret that I was silent for so long because there is so much to tell in such a short time left to me. I am seventy-nine years old now, among the youngest survivors of the Holocaust. Those who were older than I are mostly gone. Those who were younger did not survive the Holocaust as they were considered by the Nazis too young for work and were sent to the gas chambers.

January 1, Dear Friends. I have been discussing the Iranian threat with my Holocaust survivor friends and this article was inspired by our discussion. I think that not too many people realize how we really feel about it and I would be grateful if you would pass it on. Sadam Hussein who threatened to burn down Israel was hanged without fulfilling his wish.

The main reason why he hated Israel was the fact that in we thwarted his plans to build an atomic bomb.

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A squadron of Israeli fighter-bombers took care of that threat. Secretary of State Mr. James A Baker was furious with Israel and threatened us with sanctions. However, in during the first Iraqi war president Bush, the father, was very grateful for what we had done ten years earlier. It is doubtful that the coalition forces would have dared to attack Sadam Hussein if he possessed nuclear weapons.

Israel prevented such a catastrophe. However, with Sadam gone we are faced solly ganor remembrance quotes another threat, Iran, whose leaders proclaim day and night that they will wipe Israel off the map. The majority of Holocaust survivors and their descendents live in Israel and the new threat evokes in us old nightmares of Dachau and Auschwitz, Babi Yar and Ponar.

Are we going to face this new threat once again alone with the whole world standing silently by as it did during the last Holocaust? How serious are the threats coming from Iran? Considering that the Islamic death cult is the prevailing philosophy among the Islamic terrorists, it is very serious. It becomes even more serious when you see on Iranian television thousands of young people signing up to become suicide bombers for Allah, not to mention the same thing happening in dozens of other Islamic countries.

Would they use their nuclear weapons against Israel once developed? We think that it is more than likely. However, there is a small difference between the last Holocaust and the looming one ahead. The chief of the Israeli air force is the son of Holocaust survivors. The only Israeli cosmonaut, IIlan Ramon, who unfortunately perished in the Columbia space shuttle crash, was one of the pilots who bombed and destroyed the Iraqi atomic bomb effort in He too was a son of Holocaust survivors.

There are many more high-ranking officers in the Israeli army and air force that are children of Holocaust survivors and are very sensitive to Holocaust issues. I am sure that there are those in Israel who are working on the problem right now, and if necessary, will deal with the Iranians the way Iraqis were dealt with in Those who doubt do not understand what the Holocaust means to us survivors, our children, grand children, and all of Israel.

I suggest that not only the Iranians should take notice, but Western countries as well. If they think that Israel will sit quietly and allow it to be wiped off the map they should better think twice. The Ghetto. The Five Hundred Intellectuals. After twelve years at sea, he married his wife, Pola. Winter The Nazis wanted the Japanese to kill or send back the Jews, but the Japanese ignored their allies.

Ironically, Nazi propaganda worked against them here: the Japanese had heard from the Nazis that the Jews were very good with business and finance, and so they thought that having them would be an asset to Japan. The Jews for their part also played up Nazi racism against Asians, which also made the Japanese less inclined to listen to Germany about exterminating the Jews.

Sugihara paid a price for his actions.

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He was posted to a variety of Eastern European posts during the war, and was captured and imprisoned with his family by the Russians for 18 months. They were released inand returned to Japan via the Trans-Siberian Railroad. He lost his youngest son that same year. Sugihara took a number of menial jobs to support his family. He even resorted to selling light bulbs door to door.

Eventually, he was able to use his command of Russian to land a position as an export manager for a Japanese firm in Moscow. He lived there 16 years, only visiting his family in Japan once or twice a year during that period.

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He eventually retired to his home in Japan. All this time Sugihara had no idea whether his actions had saved anyone, and he was surprised and gratified to discover that they had: he felt that if he had saved even one life all his sacrifices would have been worth it. Sugihara was too ill to attend the ceremony, so Yukiko and their sons accepted the award on his behalf.

The family was granted perpetual Israeli citizenship, and one of the sons would eventually graduate from Hebrew University, speaking Hebrew fluently. Sugihara died the following year. The people of his community in Japan had no idea of what he had done until a delegation from Israel arrived for his funeral. As he told his wife, it was more important for him to obey God than his government.

His decision to aid the refugees was particularly influenced by his reading of the book of Lamentations in the Bible. He was a man of remarkable compassion, humility, courage and faithfulness in carrying out the work that God had uniquely placed him to do. Incredible courage and amazing faith: one man made a difference to the fate of thousands of Jews, one by one and day by day.

There was nothing in the world that could have induced me to face the horrors of the past, let alone speak about it. After my liberation from Dachau, I simply locked the door on the Holocaust and threw away the key. I never intended to look back.

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At least that was my plan. Arriving in Israel in with a group of Canadians who joined Israeli army to fight in the war of Independence, I assumed a Canadian identity, and played this role for many years. It had been snowing the whole night and the surrounding fields were covered with snow. Clarence and his three buddies were driving in a signal command car, chasing after the retreating German army when they noticed some clumps in the snow.

Upon closer inspection they realized that those were human beings lying there. I was one of the clumps they saw. On May 2, I was among a group of prisoners on a forced death march from Dachau to the Tyrol Mountains. We were, frozen and starving, at the end of our endurance. At night we dropped on the frozen ground and soon were covered by a blanket of snow.

Some of us froze to death, but a few like myself somehow survived. The American Army was very near when the SS guards got their orders to shoot us. Hearing the Americans approach, they began shooting into the snow mounds and then fled in panic. I was on the verge of death when Clarence lifted me up from the snow. At first I thought that the Germans came to finish us off and I closed my eyes waiting for the bullet to end my suffering.

Then I heard him speak English to me. That smile will follow me till the end of my life. Clarence then wrapped me in a blanket and gave me something to eat. His quick action brought me back to life. Fifty years later, Clarence Matsomura found me again, this time in Jerusalem. It was the emotional catharsis of that meeting that brought about the profound change in me.