I cannot sleep. One thought passes throughout the night. I, a 2G (second generation), am only a few years younger than the youngest Holocaust survivors. Who will be the voices of the Holocaust when we are gone?
Some answered, “Our children and grandchildren.” Wish it were so. I believe we 2Gs have the strongest attachment to the survivors, and that after we are gone all the museums, books, and movies will not stop the Holocaust from just becoming a date in history, another genocide.
It hurts me to say so. I have spent my life writing Holocaust books, curriculums, articles, and teaching Holocaust studies, but soon the survivors will be gone and the revisionists will go to work with vigor. It is already happening today.
What is the solution to safeguard Holocaust memory? The Shoah must be incorporated into religious ritual. It must be part of the Haggadah, the Machzor, the High Holidays, and other Jewish holidays. I have published the Rosenberg Holocaust Siddur and Haggadah.
Eventually the Shoah should become part of the Tisha B’Av service and other fast days. Perhaps the Shoah should be a day of fasting with the lighting of six candles and reciting Kel Moleh and Kaddish. We need special Holocaust-orientated prayers.
I ask that no one be upset at me for predicting the future observance of the Shoah, but this is what I truly believe.
Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg
Edison, New Jersey