טכס ביום השואה 5-5-2016

The Holocaust Memorial Ceremony:


Conducted by Mr. Shlomo Karib and Ms. Gal Greenberg






Menachem Lior, our Chair person's speech follows:



My distinguished:
• Major-General (Ret.) Eliezer Shekdi, former IDF, Air Force Commander
• Her Honor, Judge Hila Gerstl, Comptroller Representative over Claims System and State Representative in court,
• Second generation Zaglembie survivors,
• Polish Embassy Representative in Israel, Pani Dagmara Bobak vice konsul w Ambasadzie Polskiej w Israelu
• Mr. Shlomo Passi, Major Deputy of Modi'in Municipality,
• Guests from abroad.

I'd like to thank:
• Mrs. Ronit Cohen – Music Conservatory Manager in Modi'in,
• Chief Superintendant – Modi'in Police Commander and his men,
• Mr. Avi Esterzon – KKL representative.
Who are devoted and have been going along with us hand in hand in the development of the Memorial site and our various ceremonies for many years.

Friends and members,

Zaglembie survivors and their families:
Today, we commemorate the Holocaust and Bravery Day in our traditional ceremony at this site for the Zaglembie Community.
I'd like to extend my wishes to the first generation survivors, who honor us with their presence today, for healthy longevity.
I'm happy to see them among us, as I do in having the second as well as the third and fourth generation survivors.
I thank you all for your participation, thanking all the people who were active at preparing this gathering.

The Zaglembie Jewry has a glorious Zionist Jewish heritage.
In our communities, Jewish wisdom and Zionist awareness lived side by side.
It is that unique weave that we must safe keep and pass on, both as a historical memory and a hope for the future.

Raised in a vibrant, lively, rich Jewish world, varied in both spirit and deed, that has witnessed firsthand the horrors of the Holocaust; as a member of the Jewish underground in Będzin and bearer of the Fighters Against the Nazis Badge I am standing here in front of you today. In the name of the first generation of Holocaust survivors, and call you, people of the second, third and fourth generation survivors to continue and lovingly keep the flame of hope and memory burning.

You are now taking the lead in continuing documentation and passing on of memories be it private memoirs of your families or ones we all share.

In the course of our shared activity I am witness to the way you realize your destiny of commemorating that memory in varied and moving ways. You do that in gatherings and talks about the house you used to have there; on facebook; in looking for family roots and family stories; third generation initiative in having Memory in the Living room sessions for which I extend my thanks.

Among other activities, our website is alive and kicking and a delegation with Zaglembie survivors from around the globe is due to leave for Poland. In addition is a joint mission with Zaglembie Polish people for the conservation of conservation of local Jewish heritage and going strong.

Yes, these activities are also the essence of the responsibility to carry the Memorial Torch of the Holocaust.

It is commendable to give the personal story its rightful place and show respect to the heroes, the Jewish resistance in the ghettoes in German-occupied Europe and the fighting partisans.

As well as the courage of those who held on until no strength remained, and those who smuggled bread and those who studied the Torah in hiding.

From the place we are standing today, I promise our martyrs who vanished into eternal silence, in the names of all present that we will forever keep their memory and heritage alive.

I'd like to end with our poet Abraham Shlonski's words from his poem "Oath":

In the name of my eyes that have witnessed bereavement
And loaded my weakened heart with cries...
I've vowed to remember all,
Remember –
And forget none.
None till tenth generation
Until my insult is requited
To the last, to them all.

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Judge Hila Gerstl's speech:



Ten years ago to the day, I stood here, at this ceremony and spoke up.

I was invited then as now to speak on behalf of the second generation survivors, the generation that grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust. The second generation that lived and breathed Holocaust all the time at times literally at others quietly.

Yes, I was born and raised in the home of Holocaust survivors.

My mother, born in Sosnowiec, in Zaglembie.

My father was born in Łódź.

Holocaust lived with us, with my elder brother and me. We felt the Holocaust in every detail, every wall, every picture, every food and every radio program. But mainly, on my mother's side, we felt it in two ways:

The first was the long silences and her adamant refusal to talk about "there". The tranquilizers she was taking since early on, to enable her to keep up her silence and store her harsh memories in a tightly closed compartment.

The second was her endless search for lost family members whom she had last seen the day the Nazis took her from her home at 15. Mother, who was 14 when the war broke out, lost her entire family in that atrocious war and for many years, while her mind was still lucid, she kept on searching for survivors from her family. She would attentively listen to the special radio program:"The Department for the search of relatives", every noon while it was still on the air. She travelled the country by bus, at times with us, with the hope of locating lost relatives. But it was all in vain. She didn't find anyone until her very end.

Ten years ago today, I stood here talking and both my parents were among the crowd as well as their many friends. My parents listened to me with sparkling eyes and felt, then too, that they had won over their bitter enemy.

They are not with us today. They passed away, a month and a half apart, a year and a half ago. Like many other survivors, they took their Holocaust to their graves. What they couldn't or wouldn't tell us, we'll never know.

There is no history book that can contain all my parents and other survivors had been through. There is no encyclopedia that could, either. Those who were born and raised in normal families, wrapped in love and warmth and then suddenly, in one blow, their lives were ruined and they faced evil, cruelty, lack of compassion and helplessness. Those, who for many years had to cope with the hardest of challenges: survive and stay humane in the battle for survival.

Those that have risen from the ashes after losing their dearest ones, and gathered all their strength of body and soul, that body that was no longer listening to them due to weakness and hunger, and established the State of Israel.
Those who raised families and fought the daily battles of economical survival, some of whom are still fighting it today.

Those who raised us, second generation survivors, lovingly, devotedly, caring and sacrificing themselves while doing this.

Those, thanks to whom we grew up free in our state healthy, strong, secure in our private and national existence and confident knowing that there is a supportive, unconditional wall behind us at all times.

Those who lovingly enabled us, by their very being, to have our families, raise our own children and grandchildren.

Some of them are no longer with us today, but some are, a bit older but upright spiritually who can look back with great pride.

The scepter held by the survivors among us, is now in our hands, the hands of the second and third generation survivors. We will most likely never be able to decipher the mystery of our parents' surviving that horrendous inferno, their coming out of their ashes and doing what they had done.

We may have expressed our thanks to them for what they had been for us, the light they had been for us while they were still alive and will continue expressing it as long as we can,

But it is our duty to pass on both the private and the national story and what they had been through "there", as far as we know it.

We grew up with the Holocaust in the house.

Our children, third generation survivors, knew grandma and grandpa, holocaust survivors.

Some of our younger grand children, still have a memory of their great grandparents, Holocaust survivors, but this memory is fading away.

Our great grandchildren will have no such personal memory. They will read about the Holocaust in history books that might get mixed up with the Civil War in Spain, or Rome or Greece. It is up to us, second generation survivors to ensure that this does not happen. We must promise that the memory of the Holocaust is never lost, that every one of our family members takes that memory throughout their life, even if not experienced firsthand.

Only thus can we fulfill our parents' will, those who are still with us and those who are not, and maybe promise this way that our grandchildren and other off springs we have will understand that we have no other place to go, that the State of Israel is our home. And that even if it isn't always easy here and there are disputes, this is the home of the Jewish people, whose continued existence here has to be promised.

Holocaust survivors present here today, mine and others' parents, who are no longer with us, have won over the Nazi bitter enemy.

This occasion is testimony.

We, second generation survivors, owe them and ourselves, to commemorate that victory.

I said ten years ago that it was a great privilege and honor to talk as a daughter to Zaglembie survivors. I added then that in addition to the great honor and excitement, it was also an opportunity to thank the many survivors gathered on the square, who have survivor the inferno and came thus far.

Those, thanks to whom, I could then and can today stand here in front of you to say what I've come to say.

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     Major-General (Ret.) Eliezer Shekdi, former IDF, Air Force Commander

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The Memorial Torch lighters:

First memorial torch - was raised by Yuval Shmerling
Second Memorial torch - was raised by Roy Merin
Third Memorial Torch - was raised by Eran Pnini
Fourth Memorial Torch - was raised by Hedva Levana
Fifth Memorial torch - was raised by Erez Klir
Sixth Memorial Torch - was raised by Noga Lavon
Seventh Memorial Torch - was raised by Gal Ben-Tov

To the stories of the torch lighters – see the Hebrew version.

Click here for the film of the ceremony

Click here for the gallery of pictures