Photo By Scott Sturkol | Fort McCoy community members participate in the 2024 Holocaust Days of Remembrance and...... read more read more
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Fort McCoy held a special event April 15 in the chapel building 2672 to observe the 2024 Holocaust Days of Remembrance and Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Rabbi Brian Serle, the rabbi for the Congregation Sons of Abraham of La Crosse, Wis., served as the featured guest speaker and presenter for the event that was organized by the Fort McCoy Equal Opportunity Office.
According to the National Archives at www.archives.gov, International Holocaust Remembrance Day is an international memorial day designated by the United Nations to mark the anniversary of the January 27, 1945, liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau — the largest Nazi concentration and death camp.
The Days of Remembrance, according to https://nationaltoday.com/days-of-remembrance, is observed every year in April and May and is a week-long commemoration of the Holocaust. In 2024, it is observed from May 5-12, with Remembrance Day being May 6.
“The Days of Remembrance was established as the country’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust by the United States Congress,” the website states. “The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is responsible for leading the country in commemorating Days of Remembrance and also for encouraging these commemorations. The Holocaust was the state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi rulers, allies, and collaborators.”
“I can’t tell you what a great honor it is to be here to speak with you again today,” said Serle, who has also participated in the event in 2022 and 2023. “Why are we here? Why do we remember this thing that took place so long ago? The Holocaust is used to describe the events you saw between 1932 and 1945. That was even before I was born. The Holocaust began when the Nazis came to power through a democratic election. They were elected and once in power, they put into place their plans to remove Jewish people, and gay people, and gypsies and Poles, and Slavics from every part of European society.
“Jews (could) no longer serve as judges or lawyers, professors or teachers, or as doctors or nurses or soldiers,” Serle said. “Even though half a million Jews had served in World War I, as soldiers. Jews could no longer marry or even date Germans. Jewish stores were boycotted and looted and eventually taken over for free by their neighbors.”
Serle also discussed Kristallnacht. Which according to Brittanica at https://www.britannica.com/event/Kristallnacht, was the night of Nov. 9–10, 1938, when German Nazis attacked Jewish persons and property.
“The name Kristallnacht refers ironically to the litter of broken glass left in the streets after these pogroms,” the website states. “The violence continued during the day of Nov. 10, and in some places acts of violence continued for several more days. The pretext for the pogroms was the shooting in Paris on Nov. 7, 1938, of the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by a Polish-Jewish student, Herschel Grynszpan. News of Rath’s death on Nov. 9 reached Adolf Hitler in Munich, Germany, where he was celebrating the anniversary of the abortive 1923 Beer Hall Putsch.
“There, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, after conferring with Hitler, harangued a gathering of old storm troopers, urging violent reprisals staged to appear as ‘spontaneous demonstrations,’” the website further states. “Telephone orders from Munich triggered pogroms throughout Germany, which then included Austria.”
“The day of broken glass,” Serle said. “One thousand German synagogues were burned to the ground.”
During World War II, Serle also reminded the audience that as Germany took over more and more of Europe from France to the Netherlands to Poland, Jews were squeezed into ghettos.
“The worst was Warsaw with over 600,000 people in one square mile for these extremely difficult and unsanitary conditions,” Serle said.
Jews were also being deported to concentration camps to be worked to death as slave laborers to help the German war effort or put to death in gas chambers as soon as they arrived, Serle said.
“By the end of the war, the Nazis killed over 6 million … out of the 11 million Jews of Europe, Serle said.
In a release from the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI), it states the Department of Defense’s theme for the 2024 observance is “Behind Every Name a Story: The Courageous.” The release also discussed the special poster made for the observance.
“This year’s poster honors a courageous rescuer, Adolfo Kaminsky. An Argentine-born member of the French Resistance, Kaminsky masterfully forged identification papers, passports, food ration cards, and other documents to save the lives of over 10,000 Jews, many of them children. He risked his life and his health, losing his sight in one eye, to become one of the greatest rescuers during World War II,” the release states.
Fort McCoy Deputy Garrison Commander Lt. Col. Mike Corkum provided closing comments for the event, noting the Days of Remembrance as a “powerful and … full of emotion topic.” Corkum recalled visiting the former Dachau concentration camp more than 14 years ago.
“The emotional roller coaster that I personally took walking through that place was everywhere from absolute sadness and anger to just complete pride,” Corkum said. “And the pride was when you start reading about the United States Army liberating the concentration camp (by Gen. George S. Patton and his forces). … It was nothing short of a miracle from God that they were able to survive the stuff that was out there. It's one thing to read it. It was totally another thing to walk the ground and see where it happened.
“The symbol of the light in the darkness kind of can translates to us, at least as Soldiers, …even though we may not think it at times,” Corkum said. “But somewhere out there in the world there is someone who is in darkness and whether you’re a Soldier, Airman, Sailor, Marine, or a Space Force Guardian, there is someone in the darkness asking for the light, and you are that light. The civilians who support the military, the military who goes and does the job — you are that light against the darkness.”
Overall, the ceremony included support from Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Amy Noble with the Fort McCoy Religious Support Office who gave the invocation and benediction, and other members of the Fort McCoy community who supported reading special stories as part of the event.
Additionally, a video from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was also played, entitled, “Why We Remember.” And Corkum also presented Serle with a special appreciation plaque for supporting the event again as well as a special plaque to pianist Michelle Jones who provided the music for the event.
Learn more about the Holocaust by visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum at https://www.ushmm.org.
Fort McCoy was established in 1909 and its motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services for 35 of 38 years since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 04.19.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 04.19.2024 15:06 |
| Story ID: | 468978 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WI, US |
| Web Views: | 47 |
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