Home Biography Information View newsclip Canada refuses condolence visit Tell a friend Donations Contact us Articles by Chezi Goldberg Photos

The National Commemoration of the Days of Remembrance The National Commemoration of the Days of Remembrance was held, in the United States Capitol Rotunda, Washington, DC, Thursday May 5 2005, at noon, the fifth day of the fifth month of the year 2005. Yom Hashoa, Day of Remembrance, the event, annually held for 54 years commemorates the liberation of the death camps in Nazi Germany. The theme for the 2005 remembrance was "From Liberation To Pursuit of Justice." The audience was filled with survivors and liberators. President Bush wrote, " The Holocaust was a crime against humanity. All of us are bound by conscience to remember what happened and to whom it happened. We must never forget the cruelty of the guilty or the courage of the victims of the Holocaust." Opening remarks were delivered by Fred Zeidman, Chair of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Processional was presented by Pershing's Own, US Army Band under the direction of Major Jim Keene. The 3rd US Infantry trooped the colors of the military liberating the survivors from the death camps. Benjamin Meed, chair of the Days of Remembrance, accompanied by Susan Eisenhower, grand daughter of military leader Dwight Eisenhower, led the colors in to the Rotunda of the United States Capitol. Eisenhower is a director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Nuclear Threat Initiative. Benjamin Meed, born in Warsaw, POland, was a member of the Jewish Underground, a Jew on the aryan side of the wall assisting the Jewish Fighting organization during the 1943 uprising of the Warsaw ghetto. Greetings were delivered by Israel's ambassador Daniel Ayalon, followed by Vice Chair of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, Ruth B Mandel, speaking. Ruth Mandel was born in Vienna. She and her parents fled the Nazi threat on a boat that was sent back to Europe. She and her family eventually made their way to the UK and then the US. Mandel is a founding chair of the Holocaust Msueum's Committe on Conscience. 6 memorial candles were lit by representatives of Congress accompanied by survivors, liberators and in one case a wife whose husband recently deceased. Molly Pritchard, grandaughter of a woman who risked her life to save lives assisted in the candle lighting. Molly was selected in part due to a virtual tour she developed to assist youth who cannot come to Washington to tour the Holocaust Museum. In one day, 17 million youth learned the atrocities of the Holocaust. Pritchard is a student at the National Cathedral School in DC. The keynot adress was delivered by First Lady Laura Bush. This being the National Day of Prayer, the First Lady and President shared responsibilities of attending events held throughout the Capitol. Chaplain Raphael Berdugo, from Lakewood NJ, Captain in the US Air Force, sang El Moleh Rachamim and Hymn of the Partisans, followed by David Chase, a survivor, reciting the prayer for the dead, Kaddish. Berdugo, born in Ireland, arrived in America after living in France and Israel. A commissioned Air Force chaplkain, Berdugo, will soon be on active duty in Texas at Lackland Air Force Base. Chase born in Kielce Poland was deported at age 14. He escaped Mauthtausen's death camp during a forced death march. Chase, one of the founders of the Museum, was liberated at age 14, arriving one year later in America.