New Yorkers gather to commemorate Holocaust Day

ROCHESTER, NY — Yom HaShoah is a tradition of remembrance that dates back nearly 60 years.

“It’s important that we remember this day because we remember the people who were murdered during the Holocaust,” said Monica Gebell, communications director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester and granddaughter of two survivors. of the Holocaust.

But for Holocaust survivors and their family members, remembrance takes place all year round.

“I was not aware of anti-Semitism at 4 or 5 years old. And I thought the little village my grandparents lived in had just a few Jewish families,” said Holocaust survivor Renate Livingston.

Livingston was born in Germany and moved to England just before the start of the war.

“I left Germany on the Kindertransport in February 1939, just before my fifth birthday,” she said. “We had different adoptive parents. My sister had one, I had another and my mother had to work. The only way for us to travel to England was with a domestic permit.

She moved to Rochester in 1946 with her mother, sister and stepfather.

She never thought she would return to Germany – but she was wrong and returned in 2016.

“One experience back in Germany was this: There was a man there showing us around and his father-in-law, I guess, was a Nazi and he apologized for him,” Livingston said. “He was speaking in German, but his son was translating and then he came and hugged us, so we hugged him. It’s a whole different generation and you can’t blame everyone.

For her and for the families of Holocaust survivors, the memory was also transformative.

“Growing up as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors shaped my entire life journey with coming to the Jewish Federation and working on behalf of the Jewish community,” Gebell said.

Today, the most important thing in transmitting history is to prevent history from repeating itself.

“This year in particular, we are seeing more parallels between 1939 and today. We are learning a lot about how anti-Semitism has morphed and changed shape again,” Gebell said.

“In this war that’s going on right now, a lot of people are hurt on both sides and I always wonder why we have to have wars,” Livingston said. “We never seem to learn and it’s sad.” It would be nice if we could live in peace and love each other.