Holocaust Memorial Day: the exercise of Remembering to Honour.
We remember… We are a people marked by the atrocities the hand of history has so unreluctantly laid bear our suffering.
On January 27th, we all grieve together the loss of our loved ones and our people. We grieve those who entire generations have been wiped out and remember their names by lighting a candle, for the Jewish people are and will remain united by blood and by history. My family like so many others found themselves diminished to two or three survivors and those were the lucky ones.
My mother’s side were a prosperous Portuguese Jewish family residing in Amsterdam, Holland. They were part of a historical community where tradition was valued, family was loved and religion was observed. The Okker’s came to Amsterdam as they were forced to flee Portugal - they were not strangers ...
