A-7713 International Holocaust Remembrance Day #2

 A-7713 The number tattooed on the arm of Elie Wiesel.  One of the best known survivors of the Auschwitz death camp, Wiesel has documented through many writings his experiences as well as others from the horrors of the camps.  At this site you can read a little about Elie Wiesel and his journey as a young teen through manhood~ a journey of mind and spirit~ as he struggles to make sense of all he and others suffered.Elie Wiesel

On this International Holocaust Remembrance Day, The 2 Spies would like to share some of the thoughts from Wiesel's heart. May we truly understand what it means to not forget....

Wiesel is in the second row of bunks, 7th from the left.

"I told him that I did not believe that they could burn people in our age, that humanity would never tolerate it . . ." 

"I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

"I have tried to keep memory alive... I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices." 

"To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time."

"But because of his telling, many who did not believe have come to believe, and some who did not care have come to care. He tells the story, out of infinite pain, partly to honor the dead, but also to warn the living - to warn the living that it could happen again and that it must never happen again. Better than one heart be broken a thousand times in the retelling, he has decided, if it means that a thousand other hearts need not be broken at all. "

"I pray to the God within me that He will give me the strength to ask Him the right questions."

"We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." 

"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest."

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference."

January 27 International Holocaust Remembrance Day #1

These next few days, in a tribute of remembrance, The 2 Spies will leave the Land of Milk and Honey and journey elsewhere. A place and time that is difficult to visit.  A journey to Hell. A journey we can chose to take or not. For the ones remembered.... they had no choice.

We have no words. Our words are feeble and trite and cannot express any measure of what happened to 6 million Jews and 6 million Gentiles. Instead we will present the words of those who were there. Please forgive the graphic descriptions and photos but they are our only ticket on this path of remembering. May G-d give us the grace to learn deeply and wisdom to know how to make a stand in the face of such Hell as history will repeat itself.

  
The Butterfly

The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing
against a white stone. . . .

Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly 'way up high.
It went away I'm sure because it wished to
kiss the world good-bye.

For seven weeks I've lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.

That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don't live in here,
in the ghetto.

Pavel Friedman: Friedman was a young poet, who lived in the Theresienstadt Ghetto. Little is know of the author, but he is presumed to have been 17 years old when he wrote “The Butterfly”. It was found amongst a hidden cache of children’s work recovered at the end of the Second World War. He was eventually deported to Auschwitz where he died on September 29, 1944

First They Came For The Jews

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.


Martin Niemöller was a German pastor and theologian, born in Germany in 1892. Originally a supporter of Hitler’s policies, he eventually opposed them. He was arrested and eventually confined in the concentration Sachsenhausen and Dachau camps. He was liberated by the allies in 1945 and continued his career in Germany as a clergyman and as a noted pacifist.

Auschwitz Rose

There is a Rose at Auschwitz, in the briar,
a rose like Sharon's, lovely as her name.
The world forgot her, and is not the same.
I love her and would not forget desire,
but keep her memory exalted flame
to justify the thistles and the nettles.

On Auschwitz now the reddening sunset settles;
they sleep alike—diminutive and tall,
the innocent, the "surgeons."
                                                     Sleeping, all.
Red oxides of her blood, bright crimson petals,
if accidents of coloration, gall
my heart no less.
                               Amid thick weeds and muck
there lies a rose man's crackling lightning struck;
the only Rose I ever longed to pluck.
Soon I'll bed there and bid the world "Good Luck."

Michael R. Burch is an American poet, essayist, editor and publisher of Holocaust poetry. The painting is by Mary Rae. Burch describes the painting's genesis as follows:
"The Rose came to me in a vision, and Mary Rae helped bring her to life. In my vision the Rose floated in the air, suspended before the dismal gray Auschwitz death camp. Thornless, she symbolizes women and children who are defenseless, unless we choose to protect them."



 

An Avenue to Serve

I will bless those that bless you.... A promise from heaven. A reciprocal mandate. You bless. You get blessed.  What ever does it mean to bless the Jewish people and the Land of Israel?  What does it look like when one takes up the call from heaven to be a blessing? 

The act of thoughtfully and creatively being a blessing can take on many forms. Today The 2 Spies would like to present you with HaYovel~ a group of Christians who are putting feet (and hands) to their love of Israel. They are making sacrifices in their personal lives in order to lay down their lives and bless Israel. Their efforts do not go unnoticed nor unappreciated. Consider joining them as they get ready for February and then next summer.

For more information about the work of HaYovel visit their website:    HaYovel