Today is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The photograph above was taken by my friend Erni, who lives in Vilnius, Lithuania. This photograph, and several others, were specifically taken for me, about five years ago, when he drove to Silale/Shilel, in the dead of January winter, for about 3.5 hours, in order to capture images of the shtetl that my paternal ancestors lived in before they emigrated to England and Scotland. Some of my ancestors who remained behind, were murdered in the outlying woods, and buried with the other Jewish residents in a mass grave. Their names are listed in the Yad Vashem Central database of Shoah Victims.

Silale/Shilel Museum

Read here, for more information on Silale/Shilel

Jewish Community of Lithuania

For information on the history of the Jews in Lithuania, visit here.

Visit Leora’s blog, Here in HP to read about her grandfather’s town in Lithuania.

Sir Martin Gilbert’s book, The Holocaust

Holocaust Memoir Digest

Five Chimneys, by Olga Lengyel

BESA Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II, by Norman H. Gershman

Check out my website to see the many Holocaust Memoirs I have reviewed…they are too numerous to mention in this post.

From family members who were murdered, to those whose memoirs I have read, and individuals in the films I have seen, etc., I remember them daily. But, Holocaust Remembrance Day/Yom Hashoah is a special day of remembrance that reinforces the plight of all victims of the Holocaust. Let us keep them in our memory.
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Tuesday April 21, 2009- 27th of Nisan, 5769