If We Aren't Part of the Solution ...

"The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out"

 ~ James Baldwin ~

I attended a Holocaust Memorial Service this past Sunday. From the moment we walked through the door and my sons were handed their kippah (the skullcap that Jewish men wear, as a physical acknowledgment that HaShem is always above us), there was silence and reverence in the air.

We (along with hundreds of others) walked silently through the displays which depicted the lives of the Jewish community before the reign of terror that was yet to come. We saw pictures, read the history, observed the timeline ... already knowing what history has taught us.

Twelve million people were persecuted throughout the Holocaust. Jews, Catholics, Jehovah Witnesses, homosexuals, gypsys, trade unionists, communists ... anyone who didn't conform to what was determined the 'superior race' were tortured, murdered and suffered atrocities that we cannot begin to imagine. Six million of these people were Jewish. One and a half million of those were children.

We were honored to listen to one of those survivors on Sunday - Robert Waisman. Robert was 14 when his concentration camp, Buchenwald, was liberated on April 11, 1945. He remembers going up and touching one of the soldiers, just to make sure the soldier was real. 19 year old Leon Bass was that soldier. He was the first black man that Robert had ever seen. Today, Robert Waisman and Leon Bass speak together as often as they can.

Dr. Leon Bass spoke about the racism he endured before, during and after the war. He opened our eyes to the evils of the world - not only the Holocaust, but of the injustices that still populate our world. The genocide that continues to this day, the racism and the mistreatment of human beings in every part of the population.

"None were good enough" ... "What have they done that people would treat them so badly?" Leon Bass witnessed racism taken to an unfathomable level when he walked through the Buchenwald concentration camp upon its liberation. "(This is) what can happen if we don't pay attention."

Dr. Bass quoted Martin Luther King's dream "... that people will be judged not by the color of their skin ... but by the content of their character ..."

Leon's plea to his audience was "Don't give tacit agreement by being silent." Leon said to ask ourselves - "What am I doing? What am I contributing? What am I failing to do? Is the price to high? Dare to go in and speak" "You have something to say" And finally "... what can happen if we don't pay attention"

I walked away from the service transformed. They spoke of the Holocaust and beyond that, into our present day. We can all make a difference by standing up against the injustices we see right before us.

What follows, is a video of the speech (almost word for word) that Dr. Leon Bass spoke this past Sunday. It is lengthy ... but it is worth it. Watch it. It will change the way you think.

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out -

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out -

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me."

~ Martin Niemoller ~

Note: All italicized quotes that are not specifically attributed to James Baldwin, Martin Luther King or Martin Niemollor are quotes (in part) from Dr. Leon Bass