Children light the candles of a menorah at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day observance on Jan. 27, 2025. Charmain Z. Brackett/Augusta Good News
Children light the candles of a menorah at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day observance on Jan. 27, 2025. Charmain Z. Brackett/Augusta Good News

Service marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Steven Fishman has recited the Mourner’s Prayer on multiple occasions in his life; yet, it and the service to remember those lost in the Holocaust seemed different to him Monday.

“It was very moving tonight. It got me hard,” said Fishman, who read the Mourner’s Kaddish at the International Holocausts Remembrance Day service at Adas Yeshurun Synagogue, marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Berkinau.

The service included a collection of readings as well as portions of text in song from the Shoah Scroll. Members of the congregation as well as clergy from several local churches including the Rev. Dr. Eric Biddy of Saint Paul’s Church, the Rev. Dr. Will Dyer of First Baptist Church of Augusta and the Rev. Bunny Simon Williams of Church of the Good Shepherd.

The six-chapter text features first person accounts of the Holocaust including those written by a Christian journalist about the Warsaw Ghetto, of a Jewish young man forced to pull gold teeth from the dead, including those from his own brother, before placing their bodies in the ovens, and words written on a scrap of paper by a woman named Gertrude who was forced into a labor camp along with other women. 

Each chapter represents one of the six million Jewish people killed in Nazi Germany.

The text also mourns those who never had the opportunity to marry, never had the opportunity to grow old. The final chapters speak of hope for the future.

“The readings just got me tonight. As I get older, it weighs a little more every year,” said Fishman whose own family tree has missing branches. For those in his line who did not immigrate to the United States by 1915, there is no record of them.

“There is no clue, no trace whatsoever of what happened to them,” he said.

International Holocaust Remembrance is one of two days the Jewish community remembers the Holocaust.  The other is called Yom Hashoah which will be observed Thursday, April 24. It’s part of a week of remembrance.

In 2005, the United Nations designated the international observance on Jan. 27.

“It’s a day to educate the community at large. Everybody needs to know the stories; everybody needs to know what happened; everybody needs to share what the depths of hatred can bring about. That’s why we now have this day,” said Rabbi David Sirull.

Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years and is a Georgia Press Association award winner. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.

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