Silva

Today is Kaf-Zayin Nissan. Yom Hashoah. יום השואה.

Or, the Jewish Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Normally I try to balance out negativity with positive, but to put a filter on the Holocaust is disrespectful.

So I won’t.

Someone once said that “one person’s death is a tragedy, six million is just a statistic.”

What happened was horrible. Words can’t even describe completely.

People try though, in their own ways. Because that’s what we do. We try to understand. Some attempts are more successful than others, but when all is said and done, that’s all they are, attempts.

But what’s hardest for me personally is accepting this: If it weren’t for the Holocaust I wouldn’t exist. I wouldn’t be typing this. I wouldn’t be here.

If it weren’t for the Holocaust, half my ancestors would never have left Europe. They wouldn’t have come to America. Wouldn’t have me.

How many others are like me in this?

Probably a lot.

It’s impossible to condone something that almost destroyed a people. It would be wrong to.

Because of that I take my existence as a sign of something else. Bad things will always happen. They’re inevitable. Some are worse than others even though all are horrible. Just know, at the end of the day, at the end of the era, good will return.

Even if it’s not obvious.

So, please, as the day comes to an end, take a minute. Really appreciate what you have.

A home.

A family.

An identity.

In the memory of those who had even that taken away from them.