Yom Hashoah: remembering heroes, victims and The Life That Was

Never again! They were 6 million, starved and worked to death, murdered in gas chambers, gunned down in pits they were forced to dig, poisoned, experimented on and butchered, because they were Jews.

As the survivors of World War II disappear, this year’s 66th commemoration of the end of the Holocaust takes on added meaning.

Sunday, April 10, the Montreal Workers Circle is holding its annual anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 68 years ago – the first urban revolt against German occupation and oppression everywhere.

Purim play in Poland in 1934. Photo courtesy of the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre

The guest speaker is Musia Schwartz, who survived by working as a maid and posing as a Gentile in a home on the so-called Aryan side in Warsaw. Songs and poetry in Yiddish feature Rivka Augenfeld, Sara Igelfeld and Janie Respitz, with Rachel Rosenstein at the piano.

The main community-wide event, co-ordinated by the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, takes place Sunday, May 1, at 7:30pm at the Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem Congregation, 6519 Baily in Côte St. Luc. The theme is The Life That Was, highlighting the vibrant communities and cultural effervescence destroyed by the Nazi juggernaut.

Tuesday May 3, a commemorative service will be conducted by members of the Drop-in Centre for Holocaust Survivors of the Cummings Centre at 5700 Westbury Ave. Info: 514-345-2605.