TORONTO, April 15, 2015 /CNW/ – On the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, 70 years after the last Nazi death camp was liberated, the Canadian Race Relations Foundation is mindful that the entreaty of “Never Again” takes on a new urgency.
The extent of that tragedy and its reverberations across the decades are still difficult to fully absorb. To put the magnitude in context, if one were to stop for a moment of silence for each person who died in the Holocaust, the world would have to be silent for over a decade. As the memory of the Holocaust fades, and the voices of first-person testimony are sadly silenced, with global antisemitism and genocidal intent currently on the rise to unprecedented levels, it is the children of the next generation who will inherit the role of witnesses.
The CRRF is dedicated to ensuring that the stories of Holocaust survivors and their children are part of its 150 Stories initiative. “It is through their experiences of pain and loss, as well as triumph as they rebuilt their lives in Canada, that we can best absorb and pass on the lessons of the past in the ongoing hope that hatred will never consume us again,” says CRRF Chair, Albert Lo.
Visit www.crrf-fcrr.ca to read the stories of Holocaust survivors Saul Shulman and Irene Csillag. 150 Stories is a collection of unique stories celebrating Canada’s upcoming sesquicentennial.
The CRRF and the Law Society of Upper Canada are holding a discussion on stopping the rising tide of antisemitic hatred around the world tonight at 5 pm in Toronto. http://www.lawsocietygazette.ca/events/
SOURCE Canadian Race Relations Foundation
*The Calgary Jewish Federation’s commemoration begins at 6:30pm tonight at the Holocaust Memorial outside the Calgary JCC and continues at 7:30pm at the Beth Tzedec Synagogue with guest speaker Leslie Meisels, author of “Suddenly the Shadow Fell.”