Honoring International Holocaust Remembrance Day

In commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, a panel discussion was held and a photo exhibition entitled: “The Jewish Refugee Camps in Cyprus: 1945-1948” is on display at Temple Israel of Lawrence.

The United Nations designated Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, as that date is the anniversary of Auschwitz-Birkenau’s liberation in 1945. The 44-photo exhibit, commissioned by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, depicts the struggle of post-Holocaust refugees trying to get to Israel.

Bernard Igielski, a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor attended the event, and said that he was liberated on a death march a few miles away from Dachau in 1944. The North Woodmere resident said he refused to go to a displaced persons camp and lived with German families for four years. “I learned how to love my enemy,” he said, “and it was the best thing I did in my life.” He came to America in 1948, served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, got married and has two children and four grandchildren.

The event was presented in partnership with the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC, the Consulate Generals of Cyprus and Israel and The American Jewish Committee. To honor the memory of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust, Amir Sagie, Deputy Consul General of Israel in New York, Ambassador Vasilios Philippou, Consul general of the Republic of Cyprus in New York and Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum, the spiritual leader of Temple Israel, lit six candles.

The program highlighted the lives of more than 53,000 Jews who survived the Holocaust and were interned by the British in Cyprus between 1946 and ‘49. “Cyprus was often viewed as the last stretch on the long journey to freedom,” Philippou said, about the “vibrant” communities that Jewish people established within their refugee camps.

Both Sagie and Philippou, each spoke briefly about the relationship between Israel and Cyprus over the years. “These photos remind us of the Cypriotes extended hand to the Jewish community,” Sagie said, in reference to the photo exhibit, adding that both nations have encountered injustices, continued to persevere and are now stronger.

“I never heard of this particular voyage from Cyprus to Palestine,” David Wasser, of Lawrence, said about why he attended the event. He said that in the 1920s, his father and grandfather traveled from Russia through Romania and Belgium to Ellis Island where they were rejected because of an eye infection. They then went to Nova Scotia, Canada and then traveled throughout Canada. They settled in upstate Rouses Point.

“It’s a history of how Jews that survived the Holocaust tried to make their way to Palestine which was under British rule at that time,” Rosenbaum said. He believes that the exhibition stresses the importance of Israel, and shows that there were people empathetic to the plight of these Jewish refugees.

To see the photo display, visit Temple Israel of Lawrence at 140 Central Ave. in Lawrence.