It's been a bit of a roller coaster ride over the last few days so I thought I had better hunker down and get up to speed with the blog entries. There was a window of opportunity this morning as we are due to drop into the Cape Town Holocaust Centre only this afternoon for a briefing with the volunteers who will show visitors around the Surviving History: Portraits from Vilna exhibition until the 29 April, before it moves to Johannesburg and finally to Durban.
But I thought I would jot down a few notes about the events over the weekend. Shivaun attended the Yom Hashoah memorial service at Pinelands Jewish Cemetery on Sunday, 11 April. I did not attend so unfortunately we don't have any images to post. But she came back overawed and enthused and said it was truly amazing, that there was pomp, ceremony and a sombre ritual laying of wreaths, people in military attire, and heartrending testimonies. So she said Maggie and I had to come and join her that evening for an informal dinner at the Sephardic Jewish Shul. One main objective of that dinner was to remember the Rhodes survivors who had made it to South Africa and to honour them.
What was amazing to me once again, and for anyone who has followed this blog since the early days in 2008 when we embarked on this project will know, is the Jewish propensity for commemoration, intergenerational transmission of memory, and the reverence paid to such memories. As you will see in the images below, there is a display wall sponsored by a member of the congregation that remembers these survivors and provides a bit of a history lesson to its congregation. How wonderful to have such public commemoration, so that "we shall never forget" the lessons of the Holocaust.
The cantor and rabbi performs for the diners
Survivors Ella Blumenthal and friend celebrate
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