A Holocaust pledge by Justin Amler

 Justin Amler, I will take that pledge with you.

"So I pledge in this moment, of this day, in this time that no matter how rough the seas will get, and no matter how strong the storm will blow or how hard the rain will fall, and no matter how dark the night will become, I will be there, holding up a candle and honoring the memory of my family and my people." 

And as a Muslim, along with several other Muslims, we will continue to light the candle in the memories of Holocaust and genocide victims at our annual (just passed the 8th) Holocaust and Genocides event. God willing some day, I would like this interfaith event to be organized in every place by non-Jews as a part of understanding the tragedy - to remind ourselves to see the inhumanity in us, each one of us, and learn to say never again. 

When you talked about the dignified way in which they endured the death, it reminds me of my own story that I have shared before, how those images have been a part of my life and made me a devoted human rights activist. I will include this piece at our site www.HolocaustandGenocides.com 

Thank you for sharing this. 

God bless you.
Mike Ghouse

A Holocaust pledge
Courtesy of Facebook/Progressive Zionism and Jerusalem Post
http://www.jpost.com/Blogs/The-Energy-of-Thought/My-pledge-389245

Over the last few days, I have seen pictures and read stories and watched videos of people who once lived on this earth.  People who played and laughed.  People with goals and dreams.  People who worked hard to make a living and to make a life for themselves – only to have it all ripped away by the evils of man. 

And as the 70th commemoration of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp rolls away, the memories of that time do not roll away with it.  Because those faces that stared up in wonder from faded black and white photographs, and decaying film strips with scratches and white patches of overexposure, were my people and my family.

In America they speak about the Greatest Generation – those who grew up among the depression, but we too have our Great Generation who for many did not grow up, but remained forever young, and whose dreams did not die with them, but passed on to those who came after.

They were all my heroes, and who I am today is shaped from who they were yesterday.  Because behind the hollow eyes and the broken bodies, there were souls.  Souls that burnt bright.  Souls that yearned to live, in a time where life itself was a scarcity.  A time where a slice of bread was the difference between living and dying, and a potato was worth the combined fortunes of an entire country.

I think about the boys who once might have played with an old soccer ball in the streets behind their homes.  I think about the girls who dressed up small dolls and held tea parties.  I think about the children who never even got to play, or the babies whose time on this earth was as short as the taking of a small breath.  I think of the fathers and the mothers who tried their hardest to look after their families and give them a good life.  And I think about the grandparents who watched as the entire world they had known and grown up with was destroyed before their eyes.  I also think about those whose faces will never be known, and whose photos along with their bodies were burnt in the fiery pits of hate. 

I think of all of them and the fate that would have been my own, if not for my grandmother who at the tender age of 12, along with her brother just one year younger was forced to leave her small town of Ponevez and everything she had ever known to board a ship that traveled to the less dark continent of Africa.  Two small children traveling alone across the world.  She survived, not because of the world, but in spite of it.  She lived, but her aunts and her uncles did not.

They are all my family – those who survived through the horrors and those they didn’t.  And even as the last of those survivors begin to fade away and return to the heavens from whence they came, and those dark forces that tried to smother them before begin to gather again, I will stand here tonight and make a pledge.

My pledge is directed to you and to me and to the entire world.

To those who try to tell me these heroes who are my family didn't exist and their memories are false, I will stand before you as proof.

To those who want the memory of the Holocaust to disappear like the fading mist of a winter’s morning, I will hold up their testimonies for all to see.

And to those whose desires are filled with darkness and their hearts with evil and somehow want to revisit that period in history, I will fight you.  And by doing so I will fight for my own survival just as those who went before me fought to stay alive - even as their last breaths of life slipped away.

So I pledge in this moment, of this day, in this time that no matter how rough the seas will get, and no matter how strong the storm will blow or how hard the rain will fall, and no matter how dark the night will become, I will be there, holding up a candle and honoring the memory of my family and my people.

The human body is frail, but the human spirit is not.  And the spirit of their generation will live on through mine and forever more.

The Muslims Who Saved The Jews

The Muslims Who Saved The Jews

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112384539

Host Liane Hansen speaks with photographer Norman Gershman about his book Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II, which is also the subject of a documentary called God's House. Greshman spent five years collecting stories of Albanian Muslims who harbored Jewish refugees during World War II.

Hear it on media player - http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=112384539&m=112384514

LIANE HANSEN, host:

During the Nazi occupation of Albania and Kosovo during the second World War, Jews facing persecution and death had a small group of seemingly unlikely allies - Muslims. Sixty-five people managed to save some 2,000 Jews, and have been honored by the Jewish Holocaust Memorial as righteous among nations.

Photographer Norman Gershman spent five years taking photos of them and collecting their stories. They've been published in a new book, "Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II." Mr. Gershman joins us from Aspen Public Radio in Colorado. Welcome.

Mr. NORMAN GERSHMAN (Photographer, "Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II"): Thank you and thank you having me.

HANSEN: First the title, "Besa," what does it mean?

Mr. GERSHMAN: Well, Besa is a tradition of the Albanian people and it goes back thousands of years. It's more than just a welcoming, it's their code of honor. And if one comes into one's besa, they would literally lay their lives down for you - friends or enemies.

HANSEN: You have a wonderful photograph on page four of baba.

Mr. GERSHMAN: The baba, yes.

HANSEN: The baba. Tell us about him.

Mr. GERSHMAN: The baba is the head of the Bektashi. The Bektashi is the most liberal form of Shiites. And I'm quoting from the book, "We Bektashis see God everywhere in everyone. God is in every pore and every cell, therefore, all are God's children. There cannot be infidels. There cannot be discrimination. If one sees the good face, one is seeing the face of God. God is beauty. Beauty is God. There is no God but God."

And under the Nazi occupation, the foreign minister of Albania was a Bektashi. And he sent out a secret message to all Bektashi that the Jewish children will sleep in the same bed as your children. The Jewish children will eat the same food as your children. The Jewish children will be your family.

HANSEN: There are so many acts of courage and creativity in this book. A doctor, for example, bandaged the face of one Jewish man and kept him safe in his infirmary. And sometimes an entire village became a shelter for Jews who were fleeing the persecution. On page 70, tell us about Yakov Kasari(ph).

Mr. GERSHMAN: Well, he is the person that rescued this family. There were Jews living in their village. He took them into hiding in the mountains of Albania because the Germans moving in were threatening to burn the Jews alive.

I mean, he says: I am proud to be recognized by the state of Israel as a righteous person. We have been family of Muslims for 500 years. Besa came from the Quran. The Jews and Muslims of Albania are cousins. We both bury our dead in coffins. I salute all the Jews. May they be honored with their homeland, because the Jews are still at war and need to be remembered. I drain my glass of Raki to honor all my Jewish friends.

And this is very typical. One family said there is no Besa without the Quran. There is no Quran without Besa.

HANSEN: The son of one of the Muslims is photographed with three books in Hebrew. And I think that tells both stories, both about the communist Albania, as well as, you know, the fact that a lot of these families were unable to reunite after the war.

Mr. GERSHMAN: Yes.

HANSEN: His name is Rifat, I believe. And…

Mr. GERSHMAN: Rifat Hoxha.

HANSEN: Yeah. Tell us his story.

Mr. GERSHMAN: It's a wonderful story. His father was given these three books to keep until after the war when they would return to get their books back. And these books are prayer books - he didn't know what they were. And he felt this - his father gave him this obligation to return these books to the rightful owners. He had no way of doing it. He had never been out of Albania. What can he do? Can I help him?

And we ultimately found Aaron(ph), the 10-year-old son now in his '70s. We found him in Israel. And we brought Rifat Hoxga with the three Hebrew books to Israel to return these books to him. And while Rifat was in Israel, he was given a Quran. So, here, Rifat is going back to Albania with the Quran and Aaron has these three Hebrew books.

HANSEN: What effect did this project have on you?

Mr. GERSHMAN: Listen, I photograph with my heart. In this particular case, clearly I'm a Jew. I'm a lay Jew. But I also have studied over the years with the Sufis. And the Sufis, those are the mystical side of Islam. The Islam I know is the Islam of beauty, of music, of dance, of poetry. I don't recognize this Islam that I read about in the papers. So it was a journey that I did with my heart. And it just reinforces that there are more good people in the world, far more good people in the world than terrorist or terrorist sympathizers.

There are well over a billion Muslims. They're good people. Unfortunately, in the media you rarely read or hear about the good people. I found the good people in Albania.

HANSEN: Photographer Norman Gershman. His book "Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II" is published by Syracuse University Press. Mr. Gershman joined us from the studios of Aspen Public Radio. Thank you very much.

Mr. GERSHMAN: Thank you, Liane.

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