Event commemorates heroism of Jews who rescued Jews during the Holocaust
The B’nai B’rith World Center in Jerusalem and the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund held a joint Holocaust commemoration ceremony for the 15th consecutive year on Monday, dedicated to commemorating the heroism of Jews who rescued fellow Jews during the Holocaust.
The ceremony took place at the B’nai B’rith Martyr’s Forest “Scroll of Fire” plaza.
Every year the ceremony is dedicated to the rescue efforts and heroism of thousands of Jews who saved the lives of fellow Jews during the Holocaust.
The efforts of the rescuers, who operated in Germany, the Axis states and all the occupied countries, are an example of human and Jewish solidarity. The stories have yet to receive appropriate public acknowledgment.
The ceremony organizers seek to expose youth to the efforts and heroism of Holocaust-era Jewish rescuers.
This year, the ceremony was dedicated to the rescue efforts of Walter Suskind, and the Jewish caregivers who saved some 600 children at the crèche (day care center) in Amsterdam.
Speakers at the ceremony included Dr. Racheli Kreisberg, innovation attaché at the Dutch Embassy in Israel and granddaughter of Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal; Bert Jan Flim, grandson of Berend Jan and Gerarda Flim, son of Herman Flim (all of whom are recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations”), a Dutch historian, focusing on the rescue of Jewish children in the Netherlands during the Holocaust; Benjamin Peleg (Flesschedrager), survivor of the créche; Danny Atar, KKL-JNF world chairman; and Dr. Haim V. Katz, chairman of the B’nai B’rith World Center.
During the ceremony, a “Jewish Rescuers Citation” was posthumously conferred by Haim Roet, chairman of the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust (JRJ) and on eight Jewish rescuers from Poland, Greece and Hungary.
About 300 border patrol cadets were on hand to provide an honor guard, and more than 300 students participated in the ceremony together with Jewish rescuers and survivors.
The ceremony took place at Martyr’s Forest, the largest joint B’nai B’rith and KKLJNF project, which memorializes the victims of the Holocaust with six million trees planted in the picturesque Jerusalem mountains near Moshav Kessalon.
At the pinnacle of the forest stands the “Scroll of Fire,” created by renowned sculptor Nathan Rapoport (1911-1987), which invokes the destruction of the Jewish people in the Holocaust and their redemption in the State of Israel.