Ritual of remembrance

On a designated spring morning for more than three decades, members of Winnipeg’s Jewish community, representatives of other faith communities, high school students and local government officials have met near the Holocaust Memorial on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature to take turns reading aloud the names of men, women and children whose lives ended more than 80 years ago.

The reading of the names is the main component of Unto Every Person There is a Name, a program organized and hosted by the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada for Holocaust Remembrance Day. That day, which commemorates the six million Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide, fell this year on April 14.

“Six million is a staggering number,” says Ruth Ashrafi, B’nai Brith Canada’s regional director for Manitoba. “It is hard to fully comprehend the scale of the killings. Reading the names of the individuals out loud, together with the location of their murder — and in the case of children their age of death — puts a human face on this number. ”

This year’s event was chaired by Winnipegger Rob Berkowits, a second-generation Holocaust survivor who has been one of the name readers since the program’s inception in 1990.

“By reciting their names, we remember that each victim was an individual — a mother or father, a son or daughter, a sister or brother, a child, a friend, “ Berkowits explains. “Each had hopes and dreams and, like all people, each clung to life.”

“Unto Every Person There Is a Name,” he adds, “gives names back to those who were stripped of their identities before they were robbed of their lives.”

The names that Berkowits recites in public each year include David, Chaia, Moishe, Shlome, Pearl, Rochel, Lazer, Bateu and Hantza, who were all members of his late father Alex’s family.

Alex Berkowits was 13 years old when he was transferred with his parents and siblings into the ghetto in his hometown of Sighet, Romania in 1944. In the months that followed he endured vicious brutality, inhumane forced labour, death camps and death marches, before being liberated from the Buchenwald concentration camp, alongside his friend and future Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel, in April 1945.

Alex Berkowits was one of 130 Jewish orphans who were brought to Winnipeg after the war. That group of children also included John Hirsch, the late co-founder of the Manitoba Theatre Centre.

They were the lucky ones.

One and a half million Jewish children were murdered in the Holocaust. Thanks to the local organization One More Candle, the identities of many of those children have been preserved and their names have been added to the roster of the names read aloud at the B’nai Brith memorial event each year.

“In Judaism we are commanded to remember,” Ashrafi says, “not only so that we won’t forget but also so that we will do everything we can to prevent such an atrocity from happening again. With the passing of time, the memory of the Holocaust grows more distant. An annual commemoration ensures that we will not forget its horrors and its lessons.”

Rob Berkowitz concurs that it is especially critical in this current day and age that the horrors of the Holocaust and the identity of its victims continue to be talked about and remembered.

“The more recent surge in Jew hating and the need to combat it have highlighted for me the need for consistent vigilance and education about the Holocaust,” he says. “As the world faces new challenges, initiatives such as Unto Every Person There is a Name remains a vital reminder of the dangers of unchecked hatred and the need for collective responsibility to protect and promote peace.”

swchisvin@gmail.com

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