JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Remembrance Day was established in 1951 by the Israeli parliament. The day of remembrance refers to the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar, and marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the liberation of the concentration camps in western Europe.
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson hosted a Holocaust Remembrance Day event at the Arctic Warrior Event Center May 6, 2016.
This year’s event theme was “everyone has a story.” The stories told throughout the event highlighted extraordinary people who survived one of the most horrific events in world history.
Prior to the invocation, Rabbi Yosef Greenberg told the story of a Japanese diplomat who risked his life and career, saving thousands of Jews from persecution.
Chiune Sugihara was assigned to Lithuania as the vice consul general of Japan in 1939. In the summer of 1940 Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union and all foreign diplomats were asked to leave. As he was preparing his departure, the Jewish delegation met with him and requested Japanese visas so they could escape through Japan.
Sugihara formally requested authorization from the Japanese government, however, his request was not approved. In the end he risked his career and decided to grant the visas. By the time Sugihara left Lithuania, he had issued 2,140 visas – many for entire families.
By the time Nazi Germany took over Lithuania, thousands of Jews were en route to other parts of the world.
“As much as the Holocaust is a reminder of how evil humanity can be, it also serves as inspiration to remind us that even in the darkest moments of the Holocaust, we were able to witness the beauty within humanity,” Greenberg said.
Because of his actions, Sugihara became known as the Japanese Schindler, Greenberg said.
As the event continued, Michelle Keller, granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, and the special guest speaker told the story of her grandmother Frania (Frances) who lost her family and home at the start of World War II.
On September 1, 1939, the Germans invaded Poland.
The date also marked the last time Frania would see her then-husband and infant daughter, Keller said. The Germans came into Frania’s town and began burning buildings. Frania escaped and traveled from town to town seeking help, though eventually the military caught up to her and her group.
Frania was shot in the leg during the encounter with the German military, a pain she described as a burning fire, Keller said. Despite her injuries she kept moving.
The military would eventually catch up to her again, this time taking her to a forced-labor camp where she would sew uniforms for the Nazis.
“She was beaten and starved, but her perseverance to live kept her alive,” Keller said.
Frania would decide to jump off a train as she was being transported to an extermination camp, Keller said.
“She knew this was her only chance and hope to survive,” Keller said. “She ran as fast as she could. She kept running knowing that freedom was anywhere other than where that train was going.”
Frania eventually made it to a Jewish refugee camp where she met her second husband.
While Frania and Sugihara are no longer around, their stories are still told, and serve as inspiration. Their will to live exemplifies a perseverance unlike any other.
“You can lose your family, your life, home, and job,” Keller said. “You can lose anything material, but your education, spirit, and your will to live – no one can take that away from you.”