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NEVER FORGET: Holocaust Remembrance Day

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  • By Chaplain (Capt.) Levi Welton, 436th Airlift Wing

During World War II, the United States became the undisputed military champion of the world. Allying themselves with the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China and France, the USA fended off the Axis of Evil and brought Adolf Hitler’s aspirations of global domination to an end. Today, 74 years later, those brave women and men who fought in World War II are now in their 80s or 90s, and, in a very real way, we are the last generation to have the honor of knowing and meeting these people.

Likewise, the amount of Holocaust survivors who are still alive has also dwindled to just a few, and we are literally the last generation to have the honor of hearing their stories of survival and personal triumph over tribulation. During World War II, the Nazis systematically murdered over six million Jews for the sole crime of being Jewish. Yet, according to a recent study by Schoen Consulting, 41 percent of American millennials are ignorant about the basic details of the Holocaust, and 45 percent of all Americans can’t name a single location of mass genocide against the Jews, despite the fact that the Third Reich built over 40,000 concentration camps and ghettos. Auschwitz, arguably the largest of the Nazi death camps, was popularized in Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning blockbuster “Schindler’s List,” and yet, two-thirds of American youth have no idea what it is! Plus, the number of fringe groups who deny the historical veracity of the Holocaust has skyrocketed in recent years. As Father Patrick Desbois - a Catholic priest, world-renowned Holocaust researcher, best-selling author and recipient of the distinguished Lantos humanitarian award - says, “The more the world is aware of these crimes … the more we can prevent this evil replicating itself.”

That’s why we want to invite the Dover AFB community to join us for Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 30, 2019. We have invited one of the last Holocaust survivors alive today to speak to us about his story and to share his life lessons with us. Chaim Grossman is one of the congregants in the New York synagogue Lincoln Park Jewish Center, where I serve as the rabbi and spiritual leader in my civilian career.

In this very same month of April, Grossman was liberated from Auschwitz by American forces in 1945 and subsequently moved to Israel. He served in the Israeli Air Force and was a copilot and an electrical engineer. Eventually, he immigrated to the United States, where he has lived as a proud American ever since. Grossman was invited to our base and is commuting all the way from New York City to show his appreciation to all the Airmen of Dover AFB and to share his experiences with us. By attending, you will learn from him, show solidarity with your fellow Airmen and truly be a part of us never forgetting our past.

To hear Grossman speak, please join us at 2 p.m. on April 30, 2019, at the Air Mobility Command Museum, and seize this rare opportunity to participate in one of the last Holocaust remembrance events to feature a Holocaust survivor. For more information, please contact Tech. Sgt. Robert Hayes at 677-6490 or robert.hayes.11@us.af.mil.