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Dover AFB remembers the Holocaust

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Ashlin Federick
  • 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  More than 200 members of Team Dover came together to participate in Holocaust Remembrance Week April 7-14 at Dover Air Force Base, Del.

The United States Congress established the days of remembrance as our nation's annual commemoration of the Holocaust. Holocaust Remembrance Day was April 8, 2013, and this year's theme was "Never Again: Heeding the Warning Signs".

Senior Airman Maria Habib, 436th Civil Engineer Squadron engineering apprentice, said it is important to remember the Holocaust because discrimination happens every day in our world and because of it, people hurt people.

"We should all look at the Holocaust as a lesson learned so that something like that doesn't happen again because at the end of the day we are still human beings with a mind and a heart," said Habib.

On Monday seven volunteers from Dover AFB went to the Child Development Center and read books about Jewish culture to the children.

On Wednesday Team Dover participated in the Holocaust Remembrance 5K run.

"I decided to run the 5K to show honor to the Holocaust victims and to pay tribute to those who died," said Tech. Sgt. Rona Jones, 436th Comptroller Squadron budget analyst.

The run started and ended at the Family Camp on Perimeter Rd. Identification cards of people who have perished and who have survived the terrors of the Holocaust were given out to each runner before the run.

Airman 1st Class Lori Cord, 436th Aircraft Maintenance squadron crew chief, said the run was a way to educate and remind people what persecution and bullying at extreme levels can do.

"The goal was to plant a seed of question about how people, as a whole, could allow this to happen and hopefully that question would grow into action of change in attitude and respect of everyone," said Cord.

On Friday over 50 Airmen participated in the Reading of the Names ceremony at the Airman Leadership School auditorium.

About 11 million, 6 million who were of Jewish faith, perished during the Holocaust. Fifty names of Jewish and non-Jewish individuals who were murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1939 and 1945 were read. There is no single list of those known to have perished so the names read were just a small sample taken from archived documents at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Mr. Steve Gonzer was the guest speaker at the ceremony. He is a documentary film maker that has dedicated nearly three decades as a member of the Halina Wind Preston Holocaust Education Committee. He lost 50 family members in the Holocaust. He spoke on this year's theme.

"The lessons that we have to learn from the Holocaust are obligatory," said Gonzer. "We have to be unyielding in our attempt to raise awareness about the causes, symptoms and cures of genocide and allay the voices of those who continue to deny history. There are lots of people who deny the Holocaust ever happened."

Col. John Devillier, Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations commander, said we as a nation should not overlook the events of the Holocaust as trivial and never to happen again because the ill feelings toward the Jewish people of Europe did not happen overnight under Nazi Germany.

The bigotry and negative stereotypes leading up to the Holocaust manifested itself in Europe over hundreds of years.

"To say something of this nature can never happen again is being naïve as attempts of genocide are nothing new and occur to this day in various parts of the world," said Devillier. "Over time, memories fade and we should be cognizant of these events and pass it to newer generations."