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Declining Numbers Can't Minimize Stirring Holocaust Tribute
Though Yom Hashoah is an annual event for Jewish residents in Canarsie and other Brooklyn communities, this was the first time the memorial service was held at the East 94 Street synagogue. The service was previously held at Young Israel of Canarsie. "This is a great central location which me and my fellow rabbis felt would appropriately accommodate everyone," said Rabbi Myron Rakowitz, the spiritual leader of the Sephardic Jewish Center, who presided over the evening's events. City Councilman Lew Fidler attended the ceremony and said, "Some people ask why we do this every year. We have to rub salt in the wounds - chronic reality and hear what the witnesses and survivors have been through. We also need to share these experiences with our children."
"I could smell the burning of flesh all over - I will never forget the odor," said one woman, who endured years of torture in the Star concentration camp in Germany. "We were forced to strip and be disinfected." "Throughout the camp there was fear and starvation," she continued. "And, hard to believe, there were female guards who were ten times crueler than male guards." The survivor said that, to her, Holocaust meant "sacrifice by fire" noting that even those who escaped "sacrificed their lives every day." Prisoners in the Star camp, like all over Europe during the Nazi occupation, had to sew and wear a yellow Star of David on their clothes, indicating they were Jews. Another survivor, Virgina Najnan brought a photo of herself as a teenager and the coat she was forced to wear during her time at Auschwitz, probably the most notorious of the concentration camps.
Congregation AAA Sfard President Aryeh Leib Cukier said attendance at the service declines each year, but added, "There are a million stories and every single one is important. We have to keep telling and hearing the stories. We encourage more survivors and their families to join us in the future."
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