A Sad Day of Rememberance

“Why, God, have you cast us off forever?
Why does your anger burn against the sheep of your pasture?
Remember your flock that you gathered of old,
the tribe you redeemed as your very own.
Remember Mount Zion where you dwell.” (Psalm 74: 1-2)

I take a train to North Station in Boston MA, and from there I have been walking to my office in the downtown area. My journey takes me to a memorial near the Quincy Market area. It is a series of glass towers, each about of 2 to 3 stories tall, with a walk way going through them. The towers have a resemblance to chimney stacks, made all the more real by steam that comes up through grates at their base. It is a memorial to those who perished during the Holocaust. Each tower is for one of the major death camps, on each of the towers are engraved the identification numbers the Nazis branded on the wrists of the Jewish inmates. At one end of the walkway is engraved a quote of former President Eisenhower, who was the supreme commander of allied forces in Europe during WWII. He is quoted in saying that he had to come and see the death camps, no matter how much the experience sickened him, because he wanted to be sure that there was a least person who gives witness to the truth, the reality of the tragedy, should anyone say that the Holocaust was not so bad.

April 21st is the day when the world is called to remember the Holocaust, the Shoah, to pray for the victims of the past, and unfortunately, the victims of present genocides. Pray that the Spirit of God will dispel the darkness that can seize a persons’ heart and let such tragedies occur. Pray that the world will have the courage and the will to act and never let this happen again.