Liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by the Red Army, January 1945.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Day, or the International Day in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, is an international memorial day on 27 January that commemorates the victims of the Holocaust, which resulted in the genocide of one-third of the Jewish people along with countless numbers of individuals of other minority groups, by Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945: an attempt to implement its “Final Solution” to the Jewish question. The choice of 27 January for the annual commemoration aligns with the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by the Red Army in 1945.

The day commemorates the systematic extermination of 6 million Jews, representing two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population, alongside the deaths of millions of others perpetrated by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.^[1][2] It was designated by United Nations General Assembly resolution 60/7 on 1 November 2005.^[3] The resolution was developed following a special session convened on 24 January of that year to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and the conclusion of the Holocaust.^[4][5][6][7]

Many countries have instituted their own Holocaust memorial days. Many, such as the United Kingdom’s Holocaust Memorial Day, also fall on 27 January; others, such as Yom HaShoah (27 Nisan on the Hebrew calendar), the commemoration day observed by the State of Israel and much of the broader Jewish community, are observed at other times of the year.

Resolution 60/7, adopted by the General Assembly on 1 November 2005, established 27 January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The resolution urges every member nation of the UN to honor the memory of Holocaust victims, six million Jews, “one third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities,” and encourages the development of educational programs about Holocaust history to help prevent future acts of genocide. It rejects any denial of the Holocaust as an event and condemns all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief. It also calls for actively preserving the Holocaust sites that served as Nazi death camps, concentration camps, forced labor camps and prisons, as well as for establishing a UN programme of outreach and mobilization of society for Holocaust remembrance and education.^[3]

Resolution 60/7 and the International Holocaust Day was an initiative of the State of Israel. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel, Silvan Shalom, was the head of the delegation of Israel to the United Nations.^[8]

The essence of the text lies in its twofold approach: one that deals with the memory and remembrance of those who were massacred during the Holocaust and the other with educating future generations of its horrors.

The International Day in memory of the victims of the Holocaust is thus a day on which we must reassert our commitment to human rights. […]

We must also go beyond remembrance, and make sure that new generations know this history. We must apply the lessons of the Holocaust to today’s world. And we must do our utmost so that all peoples may enjoy the protection and rights for which the United Nations stands.

— Message by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for the second observance of the Holocaust Victims Memorial Day on 19 January 2008^[9]

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The International Holocaust Remembrance Day, or the International Day in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, is an international memorial day on 27 January that commemorates the victims of the Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of one third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities between 1933 and 1945 by Nazi Germany, an attempt to implement their “final solution” to the Jewish question. 27 January was chosen to commemorate the date when the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by the Red Army in 1945.

https://ushmm.org/

#holocaust #holocaustsurvivor #mantra #valuable #memory #victims #murder #jewish #nazi #1933 #1945 #germany #auschwitz #camp #redarmy #army #liberated

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How many of us can remember a heartwarming story that was read or hard during the past several weeks?
Well, here’s one: (Thank you to Barry Elkins for bringing it to our attention)
(JTA) — (New York Jewish Week via JTA) — In January of 1943, Irma Lauscher, a teacher at the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, smuggled a tree into the camp so that the Jewish children imprisoned by the Nazis could celebrate Tu B’Shevat in a secret ceremony. The children used their water rations to nurture the sapling.

Of the 15,000 children who were imprisoned in Theresienstadt during the Holocaust, fewer than 200 survived. But the tree was still standing when the camp was liberated in 1945, and a sign was placed at its base marking it as a symbol of resilience.

“As the branches of this tree, so the branches of our people!” said the sign under the tree, which survivors named “The Tree of Life.” Lauscher, who survived the Holocaust, eventually was buried alongside the original tree.

In the 1980s, branch saplings were cut from the tree and planted in Jerusalem, as well as in San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia to accompany a traveling exhibit of treasures nearly lost in the Holocaust.

Now, New York City — home to the largest community of Holocaust survivors and their descendants of any city outside Israel — will also nurture a descendant of the original tree. Dr. Roger Pomerantz, a Jewish philanthropist who owns a farm in Pennsylvania that holds seven trees grown from cuttings of the original tree, has donated one to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City.

“The Children’s Tree,” as it will be known, will be unveiled to the public today during a dedication ceremony held jointly by the Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Battery Park City Authority. Currently 15 feet tall, the silver maple tree will have a permanent home in the park.

“We want everybody in Battery Park City to be able to walk by and see a piece of history,” Jack Kliger, the president and CEO of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, told the New York Jewish Week. “To not only remember but to understand what resilience means in the face of tremendous odds.”

Calling the project “a labor of love,” Kliger said transporting the tree involved hiring a horticulturist to uproot the tree from Pennsylvania and working with Battery Park City Authority to find the right space for the tree.

As at Theresienstadt, the tree will be cared for by children — in this case, students at PS/IS 276: The Battery Park City School, a public elementary and middle school located just across the street from the museum. In collaboration with the museum, the school will make the tree part of an ongoing curriculum in Holocaust education.

“They were planting a tree that would live in a world that they would not live in, as sort of a physical expression of belief in the future and a form of spiritual resistance,” said Michael Berenbaum, a Holocaust historian who was instrumental in the transplant of the tree to New York, of the imprisoned children who cared for the original Tree of Life.

“Now their legacy can continue,” he added.

“Resilience is represented by both humans as well as trees,” Kliger said, comparing their abilities to survive as well as endure such a long, roundabout journey to New York.

Speakers at the ceremony will include Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. representative to the United Nations; Theresienstadt survivor Fred Terna; Czech Consul General Arnošt Kareš; and Battery Park City Authority President and CEO B.J. Jones. The student choir at PS/IS 276 will also perform.

The post A tree that survived the Holocaust gains a new life in New York City appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Author: Julia Gergely

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A Look Back at 2017….
2017 was another successful year at PEACE OUTside Campus. We accomplished the following things:

We produced a video version of our Teens ‘N Transition to College Program (TNTC).

During the Spring semester, we piloted the video version of our program (TNTC) to over 600 students at Academy of Mount Saint Ursula, Archbishop Stepinac High School, Clarkstown South High School, Pleasantville High School and the Save A Life Event at Lakeland High School.

Margaret Campe at the University of Kentucky was awarded the Lindsey M. Bonistall Research Fellowship. She is conducting research related to on and off campus safety with results to be published in 2018.

We held another successful Lindsey Run on October 1, 2017 at SUNY Purchase. This year, our premier community awareness event honored the dedication, service and commitment to our mission of: Board Member Althea Fusco, Harrison Mayor Ron Belmont and Congresswoman Nita Lowey. Former NY Giants, Ottis “OJ” Anderson and Stephen Baker “The Touchdown Maker” signed autographs and took pictures with participants in support of our mission and goals.

Looking Ahead…..
We are gearing up for some new research on prevention programming in the Spring, as well as our annual appeal. More information to come on our website and social media.

PEACE OUTside Campus, The Lindsey M. Bonistall Foundation | 914-347-4411 info@peaceoutsidecampus.org | www.peaceoutsidecampus.org
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A Hero’s Farewell and a Daughter’s Undying Love

Veterans Day , WWII Veterans , World War II , World War II Veterans , Poland World War II , War Veterans , Wwii , Impact News

I haven’t been able to write about my father’s passing until now, as it’s been such a gut-wrenching personal loss for me and for his beloved homeland. But I felt on this Veterans Day weekend it was important to honor my dad, as his sheer survival exemplifies what it truly means to be an American and reveals the unwavering determination the human spirit has to prevail in the most dire of circumstances.

As the embassy dignitaries solemnly approached me to officially present my father’s medal, my eyes immediately filled with tears. They caringly placed one of his country’s highest honors, a beautiful gold Maltese Cross enameled in white, into the palm of my shaking hand. It was a profound and overwhelming moment that was — literally — decades in the making.

I slowly walked over to my father’s oak casket and gently placed the medal onto the flag that draped his coffin and likewise commemorated his courage, my hand lingering a moment as if to touch his heart one last time. The color guard raised their sabers in a dramatic salute as a sign of respect for the historic moment: My father had finally earned the recognition he deserved for the heroism he had exemplified almost seventy years earlier when he had nearly died fighting for the freedom of his country.

The long journey to this moment had begun when my father had desperately crawled through the dark and corpse-filled sewers of Warsaw, and had continued in a brutal Nazi POW camp, where my father, Ryszard Kossobudzki, sold the suit off his back for a loaf of bread.

At just thirteen years of age, he saw the German planes invade and decimate his country in September of 1939. Life changed forever in Poland, but my father’s steadfast patriotism did not. Although he was offered a chance to sneak out across the border after the fighting began, he did not leave. Instead, he voluntarily chose to stay and fight in the Warsaw Uprising of World War II, knowing the heavy odds were that he would die for his country. More than eighty percent of his citizen unit, virtually unarmed soldiers, did.

Young Kossobudzki was known by his comrades only by a code name which, when translated, meant “Mountain Lion.” He had chosen that name to remind himself that he had to run fast and sneak by the Nazis. And, like a cat, he had many lives, narrowly cheating death over and over. He was shot at, torn up by grenade shrapnel, and chased by a dive bomber which obliterated the building he ran to. But eventually he was seriously injured by a mortar shell that killed his comrade who was standing just a few feet away. When he left Warsaw in October 1944, the once vibrant city was smoldering rubble, by some estimates, a staggering eighty-five percent destroyed.

The young freedom fighter was held at gunpoint by the Nazis as they threw his near lifeless and bloodstained body onto a boxcar headed toward a German POW camp. As every bump of the steam locomotive made him wince in pain, all that mattered to this stalwart resistance warrior was to make sure he and his buddies made it through the next hour or day. Amazingly, it was around this time that he was nominated by his Commander for the esteemed Fighter’s Cross, the equivalent of the American Silver Star (something I discovered just a few years ago while researching and writing Quiet Hero, the bestselling book about my father). Ultimately, a daring escape from the POW camp led him to the safety of U.S. troops, who met my father — now weighing a mere ninety pounds on his six foot frame — with cheers and hugs on a small German riverbed. It was young American GIs who saved my father and told him he was finally free.

My dad faced his final battle in life with the same courage, grace, and dignity that he had displayed as a teen. When he shared with me recently that he had cancer, my heart broke. Hearing the fear and pain in my voice, he said to me, “Don’t worry — in the Uprising, five German units couldn’t get me, I’ll fight this with everything I have, too.” And he did.

He had choked up when I told him the Polish Consulate had learned, through documents that were hidden during the war, that he had been nominated in 1944 for the prestigious Fighter’s Cross. He humbly said all he cared about at the time was “not to have a wooden cross,” meaning killed in battle. Like so many veterans, he didn’t seek awards or accolades, he only cared about protecting his country and survival. Despite his incredible humility, I privately began diligently working on getting him the acknowledgements he greatly deserved. I felt it would not only recognize my father, but all of the unsung heroes of WWII.

Knowing time was of the essence, I remained determined and made a trip to Poland to press forward on this important process for my dad. Appropriately, on Memorial Day weekend this year, a Polish embassy official and the Defense Attaché came to my father’s hospital bed in the ICU unit and formally presented him with a beautiful gold medal from the Defense Minister. As they pinned that medal and the Fighter’s Cross on my father’s hospital gown, even the critical care nurses and doctors who bore witness to emotional leavenings on a daily basis, were misty-eyed. To the sound of their applause, my father also officially became an officer, promoted from Corporal to Second Lieutenant. The uniformed general gave him a hearty salute. I was so thankful my dad was alive to see those great honors.

The road to my father’s past and back was an emotional journey for both my father and me after years of painful separation, but I was grateful that we shared the beautiful ending of his remarkable life. As one friend told me, “You made his last years, his best.” I think given what my father endured as a teenager thrust into WWII, the least I could do as a daughter was to make sure he was appreciated for his tremendous record of service and ultimately honored. I believe it is the least we can do for all of our veterans and their selfless contributions,

As my father took his last breaths, I promised him I would always remind people of the extraordinary sacrifice of his fearless young Polish comrades and the brave U.S. troops who saved him and — I believe — saved the world in WWII, and continue to do that time and time again. I also told him how much I loved him and would miss him.

As my father quietly slipped away, he was not only surrounded by accolades from America and his homeland, but by those who loved him dearly, holding his hand as the heroic Lieutenant Kossobudzki completed his last mission.

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Cheese and Light Hors D’oeuvres by Catering Concepts NYC
(www.facebook.com/CateringConceptsNYC)

:::Domingo Zapata:::

Domingo Zapata is a Spanish-American artist born in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

Zapata produces Neo-Expressionist paintings as well as sculpture using both oil and acrylic, often incorporating mixed-media, collage and graffiti.

For over 20 years Zapata has built a body of work, which varies significantly in motif, though consistently explores themes of sexuality, opulence, and vitality in his signature style. In this distinctive hand, Zapata layers fantasy and reality, luring the viewer into his potent, cosmically beautiful world. Known for his signature “Polo” series, which first gained him critical acclaim, more recent work focuses on themes including his native Spanish culture, American Pop icons, and the state of the contemporary practice.

Named an “artist to watch,” in 2011 by the prestigious Whitewall Magazine, Zapata has quickly fulfilled this prophesy. Since, his work has lauded praise from international press such as The New York Times (cover story, Thursday Styles April 25, 2013), Esquire Spain, Vanity Fair Italia, and The New York Observer. Recently, The New York Magazine deemed him, “in a league of his own,” while the New York Post proclaimed Zapata to be the “new Andy Warhol, with starlets begging for a sitting.”

:::Daniel Mazzone:::

Daniel Mazzone was born and raised in Toronto, Canada.

As part of an artistic family, he was surrounded by a world of visual concepts and expression. His mother was an art instructor, and Mazzone became particularly interested in the composition and production of stained glass at a young age.

Using letters, newspaper stories, magazines covers, song lyrics, and photographs, Mazzone works freehand to carve shapes that fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Carefully layering the images so that they read together as a cohesive whole, the attention Mazzone brings to his art to compels the viewer to stop, focus, and take in the endless detail of each work.

The artist’s women are among some of his most popular works, inspiring more than one guest at the party to pose in front of his lovely ladies. Mazzone’s love and respect for women is evident in his work, which celebrates and exalts women as goddesses of the earth.

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