We will never forget

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, held on the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, January 27, 1945.

We will never forget.

72 members of my mother's family were killed in the Holocaust.

I'll never forget.

My mom used to walk to school on roads made with Jewish tombstones.

We'll never forget.

My grandmother and my aunt, as an infant, fled their town in a train when the Nazis advanced to where they lived, a bomb dropped on the train, and my grandmother and aunt escaped and managed to survive in the forest.  By themselves, because my grandfather was in the front as a combat medic.

My children will never forget.

My father and family evacuated from Moscow during the war.

We will never forget.

We will never forget, but we will move on and we will be stronger.  Check out photos here and click here for more information about today.

Today's theme song - The Partisan Song (in Yiddish w/ English translation):
Zog nit keyn mol az du geyst dem letsten veg,
Khotsh himlen blayene farsthtelen bloye teg.
[Never say you are walking your final road,
Though leaden skies conceal the days of blue.]
Kumen vet nokh undzer oysgebenkte sha'ah,
S'vet a poyk ton undzer trot mir zaynen do!
[The hour that we have longed for will appear,
Our steps will beat out like drums: We are here!]
Fun grinem palmenland biz vaysen land fun shney,
Mir kumen on mit undzer payn, mit undzer vey.
[From the green lands of palm trees to lands white with snow,
We are coming with our all pain and all our woe.]
Un vu gefalen s'iz a shpritz fun undzer blut,
Shprotzen vet dort undzer gevurah, undzer mut.
[Wherever a spurt of our blood has fallen to the ground,
There our might and our courage will sprout again.]
S'vet di morgenzum bagilden undz dem haynt,
Un der nekhten vet farshvinden miten faynd.
[The morning sun will shine on us one day,
Our enemy will vanish and fade away.]
Nor oyb farzamen vet di zun in dem kayor,
Vi a parol zol geyn dos lid fun dor tsu dor.
[But if the sun and dawn come too late for us,
From generation to generation let them be singing this song.]
Dos lid geshriben iz mit blut un nit mit blay,
S'iz nit keyn lidel fun a foygel oyf der fray,
[This song is written in blood not in pencil-lead.
It is not sung by the free-flying birds overhead,]
Dos hot a folk tsvishen falendike vent,
Dos lid gezungen mit naganes in di hent!
[But a people stood among collapsing walls,
And sang this song with pistols in their hands!]