History of Sorts

There are so many stories and accounts written about the Holocaust. Often in horrific detail and concerning large numbers.

When you look at the numbers, be it 6 million Jews and another 5 million or so  of Roma, Homosexuals, Disabled and other groups, the numbers are staggering. However they are also nearly impossible to fathom for most people.

And this might sound harsh and strange but it is a reality that it doesn’t matter if it is 6 million, 11 million or 15 million. When you talk about those numbers they become statistics or raw data.

The human mind just can not cope with something on that scale and magnitude and soon it gets desensitized to the numbers. It is human nature.

Does this mean we have to forget about all the victims and just move on? The answer is threefold, NEVER,NEVER,NEVER.

The Holocaust can never be allowed to happen again, I found the best way  to bring the message home to people is by making the stories personal, Make people identify with the victims, as a virtual mirror so to speak, because reality is it could have been anyone.

Here are some numbers which are statistics but they belong to a man, a man who does not look that much different then I.  It is I am older and a bit bigger but other then that..

Salomon Engers

7 September 1903-the day he was born in Amsterdam

Ruyschstraat 47 III, Amsterdam-His address

1926 the year he married his wife Klara Markus

6- the number of children the couple had

1939- the year his wife died

1942- the year he was betrayed in Bergen op Zoom

28 February 1943- the day he was killed in Monowitz

39- his age when he died

1- the number of his children that survived the Holocaust.

All of the millions deserve to be remembered but I believe the best way to do it is by 1 victim or 1 family at a time.

It is hard work but it is all our duty as human beings to do so.For each one of those millions deserve to be remembered.

Source

Joods Monument