Days of Remembrance

Days of Remembrance May 1-8, 2016

Days of Remembrance Each year, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum leads the nation in commemorating Days of Remembrance.

Days of Remembrance Days of Remembrance was established by the U.S. Congress to memorialize the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust—as well as the millions of non-Jewish victims—of Nazi persecution.

Days of Remembrance Millions of ordinary people witnessed the crimes of the Holocaust—in the countryside and city squares, in stores and schools, in homes, and workplaces. Across Europe, the Nazis found countless helpers who willingly collaborated or were complicit in the crimes through their inactions. The banner reads: “The Jews are our misfortune.”

Days of Remembrance The victims had no control over their fates.

Days of Remembrance The rescuers, on the other hand, made choices. They chose to risk their own lives, their families’ lives, and their homes to help save thousands of innocents. In 1953, the state of Israel established Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, in order to document and record the history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust as well as to acknowledge the countless non-Jewish individuals who risked their lives to save Jews.

Days of Remembrance Yad Vashem began to award the title “Righteous Among the Nations” in 1963, and since that time—26,119 rescuers from 51 countries—have been acknowledged for their efforts. This presentation commemorate the actions and stories of the five Americans, ordinary people who through their actions became extraordinary. Their acts of courage—to intervene and help rescue—those being persecuted by the Nazis and who have been awarded the title of “Righteous Among the Nations.”

Days of Remembrance Varian Fry, a 32 year old Harvard-educated classicist and journalist from New York City, serving as a foreign correspondent who saved thousands of endangered refugees who were caught in the Vichy French zone escape from Nazi terror during World War II. This man, known as “the American Schindler,” died in obscurity and without recognition.

Days of Remembrance Despite having had no training in underground work and no knowledge of forgers, black marketeers, or secret passages, within 24 hours after his arrival in France Fry committed himself to a mission that saved prominent persons such as artists Marc Chagall and Max Ernst, writer Hannah Arendt, and sculptor Jacques Lipchitz. Fry said, “I stayed because the refugees needed me. But it took courage, and courage is a quality that I hadn't previously been sure I possessed.”

Days of Remembrance In 1991, 50 years after his courageous actions in France saved thousands of innocent lives and 24 years after his death, the United States Holocaust Memorial Council awarded the Eisenhower Liberation Medal to Varian Fry. In 1994, he was also honored by Yad Vashem as a “Righteous Among the Nations” — the first American recipient of Israel’s highest honor for rescuers during the Holocaust.

Days of Remembrance Waitstill Sharp was a minister in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and his wife Martha a noted social worker. In 1939, the Sharps accepted an invitation by the Unitarian Service Committee to help members of the Unitarian church in Czechoslovakia, leaving their own children in the care of others.

Days of Remembrance Arriving in Prague, the Sharps aided a number of Jews to leave the country, which had come under Nazi control. They continued their charitable work until August 1939, leaving Prague when warned of their possible arrest by the Gestapo. In June 1940, the Sharps landed in Lisbon, Portugal, to continue helping refugees from war-torn France. Making their way into Vichy-controlled France, they sought ways to help fugitives from Nazi terror, Jews and non-Jews alike.

Days of Remembrance The Sharps’ activities included registering refugees, bringing applicants to the attention of embassies, finding the scholarships or employment necessary for emigration, securing releases from prisons, and arranging travel to safer destinations in London, Paris, or Geneva. They faced enormous bureaucratic hurdles at every step. Martha Sharp was the first woman from the United States to be so honored by the “Righteous Among the Nations.” The Sharps were the second and third U.S. citizens, after Fry, to receive this title in 2006.

Days of Remembrance In 1941, twenty-six year old Lois Gunden, an American French teacher from Goshen, Indiana, came to work with the Mennonite Central Committee in southern France. Far from her home, she would become the rescuer of children of a different nationality, religion and background.

Days of Remembrance Gunden went to France to serve with the Mennonite Central Committee. She joined the Secours Mennonite aux Enfants in Lyon and was sent to establish a children’s home in Canet Plage, located on the Mediterranean Sea. The children’s center became a safe haven for the children of Spanish refugees as well as for Jewish children, many of whom were smuggled out of the nearby internment camp of Rivesaltes. She interceded to save Jewish children, including reassuring parents that she would take care of them, and shield them from the Nazis.

Days of Remembrance In November 1942, the Germans occupied southern France. Although she was considered an enemy alien after the United States entered the war, she continued to run the children’s center. Two months later, she was detained by the Germans until she was released in 1944 in a prisoner exchange, later returning to her home in Indiana. In 2013, she was recognized by Yad Vashem as “Righteous Among the Nations.”

Days of Remembrance In 2015, Yad Vashem posthumously recognized Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds as Righteous Among the Nations. He is the first American soldier to be so recognized.

Days of Remembrance Edmonds shipped out in December 1944 with the 106th Infantry Division. He was captured with thousands of other soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge. On Christmas Day, he and the others arrived in Stalag IX-B, a Prisoner of War (POW) camp known as “Bad Orb” that housed more than 25,000 soldiers at a time. Thirty days later, Edmonds and the other noncommissioned officers were moved to Stalag IX-A with 1,275 other soldiers. As a Master Sergeant, he was the senior noncommissioned officer among the men.

Days of Remembrance The Wehrmacht (German armed forces) had a strict anti-Jew policy and segregated Jewish POWs from non-Jews. On the eastern front, captured Jewish soldiers in the Russian army had been sent to extermination camps. At the time of Edmonds’ capture, the most infamous Nazi death camps were no longer fully operational, so Jewish American POWs were instead sent to slave labor camps where their chances of survival were low.

Days of Remembrance U.S. soldiers had been warned that Jewish fighters among them would be in danger if captured and were told to destroy dog tags or any other evidence identifying them as Jewish. On the prisoners’ first day at the camp, the Nazi soldiers made their order very clear. Jewish American POWs were to be separated from their fellow brothers in arms and report to morning roll call.

Days of Remembrance Edmonds knew what was at stake. Turning to the rest of the POWs, he said: “We are not doing that, we are all falling out. Geneva Convention affords only name, rank and serial number, and so that's what we're going to do. All of us are falling out.” The next morning, all 1,275 soldiers stood at attention in front of their barracks. The German commander turned to Edmonds and said: “They cannot all be Jews.”

Days of Remembrance Then the Nazi officer barked at Edmonds, “I'm commanding you to have your Jewish men step forward.” Edmonds refused, and gave him his name, rank, and serial number. The commander pulled out his pistol and pressed it into Edmonds' forehead. “You will have your Jewish men step forward or I will shoot you on the spot.”

Days of Remembrance Edmonds replied: “We are all Jews here. If you are going to shoot, you are going to have to shoot all of us because we know who you are and you’ll be tried for war crimes when we win this war.” Edmonds’ choice and action set an example for 1,275 soldiers as they stood united against the barbaric evil of the Nazis. Over 200 Jewish American soldiers were saved that day.

Days of Remembrance Our modern military was forged in the fight against Nazi tyranny. To defeat Hitler we mobilized all of the strength that we could muster, and in that effort we witnessed many of our finest hours as a military and indeed, as a country.

Days of Remembrance Today we carry forward the proud legacy of men and women of the United States Army who played a vital role in liberating the camps at Buchenwald, Dora-Mittelbau, Flossenbürg, Dachau, and Mauthausen. American forces not only brought freedom to the survivors of Nazi horrors, they also made sure that in its aftermath the world would know what had happened.

Days of Remembrance In the days after Allied forces captured the first concentration camps, Generals Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, and Omar Bradley themselves inspected the camps, and saw the horrors that had occurred. They were, in Eisenhower’s words, atrocities “beyond the American mind to comprehend.”

Days of Remembrance Eisenhower ordered every American soldier in the area who was not on the front lines to tour these camps, so that they could themselves see what they were fighting against, and why they were fighting. These soldiers became not only liberators, but witnesses to one of the greatest massacres in history.

Days of Remembrance The commitment of our forces to the survivors of Nazi atrocities did not end with liberation. In the aftermath of war, we cared for survivors and we helped reunite families. We provided both physical and spiritual nourishment to the survivors of the Holocaust.

Days of Remembrance Days of Remembrance raises awareness that democratic institutions and values are not simply sustained, but need to be appreciated, nurtured, and protected. It also clearly illustrates the roots and ramifications of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping in any society.

Days of Remembrance More importantly, silence and indifference to the suffering of others, or to the infringement of civil rights in any society, can—however unintentionally—perpetuate these problems.

“Let us not forget, after all, there is always a moment when moral choice is made…. And so we must know these good people who helped Jews during the Holocaust. We must learn from them, and in gratitude and hope, we must remember them.” —Elie Wiesel Survivor of the Auschwitz, Buna, Buchenwald, and Gleiwitz concentration camps

Sources http://www.ushmm.org/ http://virtualjerusalem.com/ https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/veteran-honored-saving-jewish-pow.html http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/index.asp

Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, Patrick Air Force Base, FloridaMay 2016 Dawn W. Smith DEOMI Research DirectorateAll photographs are public domain and are from various sources, as cited. The findings in this report are not to be construed as an official DEOMI, U.S. military services, or Department of Defense position, unless designated by other authorized documents.

Days of Remembrance