Sometimes memory is the art of not forgetting, even against the passing of time, even after those who were involved have all died.
Not forgetting because it is important.
Here’s something that should be seared into memories.
It was on this day in 1943 that when German troops entered the Warsaw ghetto and were met with an armed if rag tag resistance. Left and right united in the fight. Armed mostly with handguns, some grenades, often handmade, and just a few rifles and even fewer automatic weapons, they fought fiercely and forced the heavily armed Nazis to withdraw.
The resistance was, of course, doomed.
However, the armed resistance lasted more than a month. For me echoing the story of the miracle of lights in another Jewish holy day, of those candles that burn, but should not have been able to burn. Considering the conditions and the odds, that alone is a miracle. And it inspired other uprisings, all brief. At the end the bulk of the survivors were shipped to Treblinka.
So.
Lessons.
A few come immediately to mind.
Remembering that we will all die, but some ways we die are better than others, and ultimately it is how we live that matters.
And, of course, who and what you stand for, and who and what you stand against.
Light one candle.
Who knows what way it will reveal…
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