"Dear Berthe, this is already the fourth day. I am on the train car now. I hope, my child, that you will be able to live as a free person, even though, for now, you are without your parents. I'm traveling in the confidence that you will grow up to be a good, healthy, and smart girl. I hope to see you again soon, your father." These were the final words Aaron Livrente wrote to his daughter in March 1943, before throwing the letter from the train that had departed the Drancy internment camp in France for the Majdanek death camp in Poland, where he was murdered.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
This year, the central focus of Holocaust Remembrance Day is the transport of Jews during the Holocaust. Within the framework of the "Final Solution," the Nazis and their collaborators uprooted millions of Jews from their homes and sent them to their deaths on trains destined for the death camps, ghettos, and concentration camps.
These deportations tore exiled Jews from the world of the humane, robbing them eternally of all they had known. This systematic operation was a historic event that destroyed Jewish communities – most of them entirely. The crowdedness and lack of basic conditions on the train cars were insufferable. Many found their deaths on these tortuous journeys. Some attempted to pass information to their loved ones in various ways, writing letters on pieces of paper they threw from the cars in the hopes they would somehow be found and delivered.
Others tried escaping by jumping from the trains. Few survived; many more died or were caught and turned in to the Germans by locals.
For many Jews, the deportations marked the beginning of the end. Every boy or girl, grandmother or grandfather, woman or man on those train cars – was a human being. A human being with names, desires, and aspirations.
Each and every one of us are duty-bound to remember and commemorate the victims, to know their names and their dreams. We must listen to the survivors who are still with us and ensure their eternal memory.
Yad Vashem has raised the banner of spearheading the documentation, research, study, and commemoration of the uniquely Jewish and human story of the Holocaust and passing it on to every citizen in Israel and on every meaningful and relevant stage across the globe. We all have the shared responsibility of fulfilling this important mission.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
