New Yom Hashoah ritual aims to bridge Holocaust remembrance to a post-survivor world

I attended events of that nature during Holocaust Remembrance services while living in Germany. From the past, that's never really the past, to the present, to the future - never to forget. The responsibility of all to remember to keep the stories of sorrow and loss, as well as the triumph of the human spirit, alive.

Rabbis from Frankfurt and Berlin came down. They joined with Army Rabbis and other speakers.

There were aging survivors and their family members. Fewer survivors attended with each passing year. Sadly, some of the families of survivors were small. I read once about the children of survivors facing their own ordeal - parent or parents who survived and how the horrors that changed them made their way to their children.

As a child I knew survivors. Local grocers, from a time when such things were big events of food shopping as much as community gathering. Orchestra teacher, who was also a member of the Atlanta symphony. They have all long passed.

I know learning their stories at a very young age changed me. Well, more like helped to shape me.