Remember and Reflect

I read that January 27 was Holocaust Remembrance Day around the world. This day is set aside each year to remember the atrocities committed at the concentration camps during World War II. January 27 is the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945. In Hebrew, the day is called Yom HaShoah, which is observed in April this year.  I am reminded of the story of Anne Frank, who, along with her family and a few acquaintances, hid in what Anne referred to in her diary as the Secret Annex. This hiding place was used to keep them away from the evil that was the Nazis. The occupants were discovered and taken to concentration camps. Anne, her mother, Edith, and her sister, Margot. were taken to Bergen-Belsen camp, where they died in 1945. After the war, Anne's diary was found and returned to her father, Otto, who had survived the holocaust. Otto Frank published his daughter's diary, and millions have read the thoughts of a young person in hiding in what is now titled The Diary of a Young Girl. The building the Franks hid in now houses the Anne Frank House Museum, which seeks to educate about what happened during the time they were there.