The Atlanta Jewish community remembers The Shoah
On Yom HaShoah the Atlanta Jewish community will join others around the world in honoring those murdered during the Holocaust. Unto Every Person There is a Name is an is a remembrance ceremony led by volunteers who read the name, age and place of death of those who were martyred in The Shoah. Organized by Achim/Gate City (Atlanta) Lodge of B’nai B’rith International and Jewish Community Relations Council of Atlanta the event began more than 25 years ago with a handful of volunteers that has grown into hundreds of participants who attend the live and virtual readings.
This year, the format has changed from 10 minute shifts to five-minute shifts and names will be read for about seven hours. Previously held on the steps of the Georgia State Capitol, this year it will take place at the Selig Center from 8am-11am and then virtually from 11am –3pm on April 24. Harry Lutz, a coordinator of the event, says reading the names is a reminder that those who perished were human beings.
“It was more than just a mass of people; six million individuals were murdered,” Lutz says. “It’s an incredibly moving experience.”
The list of names is provided by B’nai Brith International and Lutz says those who have family members who were killed during the Holocaust are also encouraged to read their names during the event.
Eddie Dressler, owner of Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care- a staple in the Atlanta Jewish community – has been coordinating Holocaust Memorial events since his undergrad days at Drexel University. He first learned about The Shoah on a trip to Israel in the late 80s, as a result he developed an obligation to spread awareness about what took place. It wasn’t until he was in college that Dressler set up at presentation featuring 40 posters of people who died in the Holocaust in the food court that stayed up for a month. Dressler was 20 years old then, and now at 56 he still carries a deep sense of sorrow for the lives that were lost.
“It’s always in my mind and I find it hard to describe the feeling, but you don’t want to feel angry or upset all the time,” Dressler says. “It’s upsetting to know what people will do to other people – even now we have a lot of work to do.”
Leslie Anderson, Executive Director of JCRC Atlanta – a co-sponsor of the event, says she decided to participate after watching the readings when she worked for the Georgia State Legislature. Today as a Jewish community leader, she hopes others will be prompted to take part in the ceremony.
“You’re reading the names, their ages and where they died. You also see entire families,” Anderson says. “It becomes so real.”
Anderson learned about The Shoah in middle school on a trip to Dachau- a German concentration camp. It was life altering to see the capacity of humans in terms of Jewish resilience she says. One of the roles of JCRC Atlanta is to serve as a convener and create points of connection for the Jewish community. As an individual, Anderson finds the ceremony poignant in her own story as a Jew, and she wants others to feel the same sense of kinship.
“It’s’ the simplicity that makes it powerful,” Anderson says. “My hope for our community is that they will have the opportunity to engage in an important event to deepen their connection to the Jewish people.”
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For more information visit the Atlanta Jewish Connector.
