S. Florida makes sure people never forget

It is a day to remember — and to make sure we don’t ever forget.

Holocaust Remembrance Day — Yom HaShoah — begins tonight, as the world remembers the victims of the Holocaust and pays homage to the survivors.

But as important as remembrance is, it is critically important that the world doesn’t forget, because in the next couple of decades, the number of Holocaust survivors will dwindle until very few voices remain as witnesses.

South Florida, with a huge Jewish population — and home to 15,000 Holocaust survivors — has done more than its part to make sure generations to come will know about the Holocaust and the lessons from that unspeakably terrifying era of history in which one third of the Jewish population of the world was wiped out.

Just last month, Gov. Rick Scott came to the Jewish Federation of Broward County to sign a bill creating a Holocaust memorial in Tallahassee. Sen. Eleanor

Sobel, D-Hollywood, filed the Holocaust memorial bill in the Senate.

“Placing this memorial at the seat of power ensures that those that were lost and those who survived will not be forgotten,” Sobel said.

Members of Temple Beth Kodesh in Boynton Beach have a Torah rescued from the Holocaust, and have made a connection to a woman believed to be the last Jewish survivor of the Czech town of Kutna Hora, from where the Torah was rescued. On Thursday, congregants will read, for the first time, the names of the 101 Jewish residents of Kutna Hora who were sent to the Terezin concentration camp in 1942.

Sometime later this month or in early June, the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, which had been located in Hollywood, will open in its new home at 303 N. Federal Highway in Dania Beach, just south of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

In addition to the survivors who come to that museum, and the exhibits — including one of nine rail cars from the Holocaust on display in the world — the facility ensures people will never forget.

And, while there are those who believe the Holocaust will be forgotten once there are no more survivors, museum president Rositta Kenigsberg wants everyone to know that won’t be the case.

“The further away we’ve gotten from the Holocaust,” she said, “the more of a touchstone it has become.”

Indeed, there are Holocaust studies programs in schools throughout Florida and the nation. There are memorials and museums. There is no shortage of Holocaust movies and books. Kenigsberg even said sailors from the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, in South Florida for Fleet Week, will visit the museum.

So the next generation will learn and tell the stories and lessons of the Holocaust, which is critical when you look around and see the hatred that still exists. Just last week, an FBI undercover operation thwarted a Hollywood man’s alleged planned explosive attack on the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center during Friday night services.

The next generation also will take notice that man’s inhumanity toward his fellow man continues around the world. For proof, like no further than the refugees fleeing brutality in Syria, where a humanitarian crisis has left countless thousands dead.

The next generation also will be able to combat Holocaust deniers with facts, from sources that are easily available.

All of which makes it so important that parents set the tone and teach respect in the home. It is important they teach their children that bullying and discrimination and hatred should never be tolerated.

So Yom HaShoah is the day the world recognizes for remembering. The hope is the lessons of the Holocaust are truly remembered every day.