Yom HaShoah
Remembering the Holocaust
— As we again said “Never Again, Never Again,” our community memorialized “those who lost their lives so tragically” in the Holocaust on May 5 at the White Theatre, while at the same time noting the 76th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the 56th anniversary of the dedication of the Memorial to the Six Million. Diane Azorsky, who chaired the program, passionately spoke about her father Ernest D. Mayer, whose parents sent him here from Germany as a teenager, where he had family, to escape the Holocaust. He never saw his parents or most of his extended family again. The exception was his sister, because their parents had the foresight to send her away as well. With her brother’s help, she eventually came to the United States. A successful businessman, Mayer opened his own accounting firm here in 1954, which eventually became Mayer Hoffman McCann, and is now well-known throughout the country.
Among other speakers Jean Zeldin, executive director of the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, described how the agency has changed since its inception 25 years ago and how it continues to help prevent a future defined by racism and bigotry. Before ending with Kaddish, Rabbi Rockoff concluding comments included, “We’ve seen the dark times, we’ve seen the good times and we pray from here on in we rise from the ashes for only good times.”
Several other events took place across the city, region and country last week. Survivor Gitla Doppelt was the featured speaker at the State of Kansas Holocaust Commemorative Service in Topeka. Sam Devinki, who is now serving a second term of the board of directors for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., traveled to the nation’s capital to attend the USHMM’s annual Days of Remembrance Ceremony.
