What this is

Posted on August 20, 2017 by NADouglass

After today’s protest, I stopped by the New England Holocaust Memorial to pay my respects. I was just a kid when this memorial was dedicated but I had recently read Elie Wiesel’s “Night” and I was so proud of my city for raising it. It’s hard to describe what it feels like to stand in one of the columns. I can say only that it is stillness. When I’m in there, I feel overwhelmed by sadness. Humanity lost so much! But beauty lives in the dark as well as the light. One of my favorite panels features this quote from Gerda Weissmann Klein:

“Ilse, a childhood friend of mine, once found a raspberry in the concentration camp and carried it in her pocket all day to present to me that night on a leaf.

Imagine a world in which your entire possession is one raspberry and you give it to your friend.”

Imagine, indeed!

As many of you know, The New England Holocaust Memorial has been vandalized twice this summer. During the most recent incident, a firefighter and a DEA agent caught the vandal and held him until the police arrived. Power rests with the bystander.

Over the next several days, the Boston protest will be analyzed, criticized here, lauded there, both condemned and praised. While you’re drowning in waves of op eds, photographs, and political statements, please remember Gerda and her childhood friend, Ilse.

One of the panels at the New England Holocaust Memorial.

Flowers and notes left at the foot of the broken panel.

The vandalized panel adorned with messages of love.

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