With Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, less than a week away, we can’t help but draw comparisons to what is happening on the other side of the world.
Television today is able to capture the pain and suffering that was hidden to the world some 50 years ago. The faces of the homeless, starving and war-torn families exiting Kosovo can only give us an inkling of what our friends and families faced as Hitler took over one European capital after another.
More than 360,000 people have been displaced from Kosovo so far. This time around, at least some of the world powers are offering shelter to the refugees.
How can we help but think of the Jewish refugees on the ill-fated St. Louis? At 7:30 p.m. Monday, two survivors of that ship will become the focus of a Yom HaShoah event at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco.
The boat and its 907 Jewish refugees was turned away from U.S. ports and others in its bid to save Jews from Hitler’s ovens. About half those Jews met their death when the ship was forced to return to Europe.
The ethnic Albanian refugees, while not facing ovens and death camps, are facing death from cold, malnutrition and lack of medicine.
The Allies are going to take in some of the refugees but nowhere near the 360,000 who are now homeless. And that number will only rise.
Imagine being forced out of your home and having no place to go. A massive relief effort must be undertaken to care for the refugees in neighboring countries. And that means that we and others in the free world need to pitch in and donate money for food, clothing and medicine.
There was little we could do to save Jews during the Holocaust. We were largely ignorant of what was happening in Hitler’s death camps. And our government and others not only remained silent over the mass executions, but did little to help more people become survivors rather than victims.
We are all being given another chance to show our humanity. Let’s act on it. At the very least, let’s send checks to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.