Holocaust Victims Remembered in Richardson

Featured Photo: Earl Bills, from the organizing committee of the Congregation Beth Torah Men’s Club Yom HaShoah, stands next to a Torah recovered from the time of the Holocaust. It has a place of honor at the Congregation Beth Torah, Richardson.  Photo by Debra Eckel.

Congregation Beth Torah of Richardson, Texas held its 19^th Annual 24-hour Reading of the Names Holocaust Remembrance Vigil on May 14-15^th. Representatives of the Richardson Texas Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other community groups were invited to participate in the commemoration. The event was opened to other community and faith groups and Jewish congregants since the organizing committee recognizes that the Holocaust targeted more than the Jewish community.

The event program states the purpose of the vigil:

In just 6 years, Nazi Germany and its allies methodically murdered six million Jews and an estimated five to six million people of various nationalities, persuasions, and cultures. Each of these individuals had a name. Each had a story. We honor them as we try to comprehend our loss, by reading as many names as possible during a 24-hour period.

During the vigil, six memorial candles were lit, each representing 1 million Jewish souls murdered, and 5 additional candles were lit, each representing 1 million additional souls from other communities who were also killed.

Angela Reese from the Sachse Ward participated in the candle lighting ceremony where a candle was lit and then the statement was read, “In memory of all the spiritual leaders lost in the Holocaust,” with a response “We will never forget” from all attendees. She felt that “honoring those that had their lives stripped away allows me to celebrate the memory of their lives so that they are never forgotten.”

Two readers at a time took turns from the pulpit reading Holocaust names, place of death, age at death, and date of death. Debra Eckel of the Garland 4^th Ward participated in the reading of the names and said, “Most all the names I read were young men and women who were 19 or 20 years old who perished in Auschwitz, Treblinka, Polish ghettos, Ukraine, and Russia. It was quite poignant but a great privilege to offer this act of remembrance.”