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What Happens to Holocaust Memory When There Are No Living Survivors?
Anti-Israel protesters hold flags on the route of the annual International March of the Living, outside former Auschwitz Nazi German death camp, in Oswiecim, Poland, May 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
It was reported in The Times of Israel that 70% of the 200,000 Holocaust survivors alive today will be gone in the next 10 years. How will the Holocaust be remembered when there are no survivors? Two recent experiences have given me a sobering glimpse of possible answers.
I live in a city in Canada, with a diverse Jewish community. Every Passover, Chabad organizes the delivery of a box containing three hand-made Shmurah Matzahs to every Jewish household in the area. The matzahs come in a handsome box with the picture of a matzah on the top, and the three things Jews are obliged to explain during the Passover Seder: Pesach (the Passover offering), Matzah, and Bitter Herbs.
This Passover, I noticed that the information on the side of the box indicates the matzahs were made in Dnepr, Ukraine. The street address caught my attention — Bogdan Khmelnitsky (also spelled Bohdan Khmelnytsky) Street.
Dnepr is a city of about one million people in eastern Ukraine, about 75 miles from the frontline of the ongoing war instigated by Russia. Although a very large number of Ukrainian Jews immigrated to Israel after the demise of the Soviet Union, a substantial and active Jewish community remains in Dnepr, centered around a large multifunction Jewish community center, the Menorah Center. It is located on Sholom-Aleikhema (Shalom Aleichem) Street.
However, the matzah factory, a large enterprise a few miles away, is located on Bogdan Khmelnitsky Street.
Bogdan Khmelnitsky is Ukraine’s national hero. Khmelnitsky led a Cossack rebellion against Ukraine’s Polish rulers in the mid-17th century. While successful initially, the revolt ended with an exchange of Polish rule for Russian domination. Today, monuments to Khmelnitsky are found throughout Ukraine, and streets named after him are a feature of most Ukrainian cities. Yet, to Jews his name is an abomination.
As is often the case in Jewish history, the Jews of Ukraine were scapegoats in the Khmelnitsky uprising. Thousands (estimates of Jewish deaths range to 100,000) were slaughtered alongside Poles. In Sabbatai Ṣevi, Gershom Scholem attributes the widespread rise of messianic fervor among Jews at this time to the sense of vulnerability induced by the Khmelnitsky massacres.
Khmelnitsky was not the last Ukrainian leader to receive the adulation of his compatriots and the condemnation of Jews. Symon Petlura was a Ukrainian military commander during the Russian civil war following World War I. The Jews of Ukraine suffered from pogroms carried out by all sides. However, the largest number of deaths (the total number of Jews killed is estimated to be well over 100,000 — see Jeffrey Veidlinger, In the Midst of Civilized Europe) were by Ukrainians under Petlura.
Sholom Schwarzbard, a Jew, assassinated Petlura in Paris in 1926 to avenge their deaths. He was acquitted after a trial that included testimony from witnesses of the massacres. Nevertheless, Petlura’s exploits are the subject of several Ukrainian folksongs and a number of Ukrainian cities have erected monuments to him.
(Remarkably, the current Ukrainian hero, to Ukrainians and many others, is a Jew, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.)
Ukrainians are not unique when it comes to collective memory loss in relation to Jewish calamities. At about the same time that I was thinking about Khmelnitsky, it was reported in Haaretz that the Prosecution Office of the Republic of Latvia had decided to close the investigation into the Latvian Nazi collaborator Herberts Cukurs for lack of legal evidence of war crimes or genocide.
Cukurs’ active role in the killing of thousands of Jews in Latvia in late 1941 is indisputable. He was the deputy commander of the infamous Arajs Kommando, an auxiliary military force created by the Germans to assist in the rounding up and murder of Jews and other undesirables, including assisting in the slaughter of most of the Jews of Riga at Rumbula Forest outside Riga.
Nazi hunter Ephraim Zuroff, writing in response to earlier Latvian efforts to sanitize Cukurs’ story, describes the evidence against Cukurs in detail, including sworn testimony from witnesses in Yad Vashem archives, noting that Cukurs personally tortured and murdered Jewish men, women, and children.
The effort to revise Cukurs’ (and Latvia’s) role in the Holocaust may be a harbinger of more to come. Recently, Zuroff was cited in an article on Holocaust memory in The Media Line saying, “there are no more trials coming. All we have left is memory — and even that is under siege.”
There have been extensive efforts made to perpetuate the memory of the Holocaust by way of museums, monuments, and recordings by survivors. Is it enough? Will the Holocaust continue to be viewed as a unique and tragic event specific to the Jewish people, or will the fading memory of the Holocaust be distorted and manipulated to suit the stories told by others?
Jacob Sivak, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a retired professor, University of Waterloo.
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Israel to Send Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Ceasefire Talks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
Israel has decided to send a delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, reviving hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations to end the almost 21-month war.
Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a “positive spirit,” a few days after US President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed “to the necessary conditions to finalize” a 60-day truce.
The Israeli negotiation delegation will fly to Qatar on Sunday, the Israeli official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters.
But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to meet Trump in Washington on Monday, has yet to comment on Trump’s announcement, and in their public statements Hamas and Israel remain far apart.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the terrorist group, which is thought to be holding 20 living hostages, has so far refused to discuss.
Israeli media said on Friday that Israel had received and was reviewing Hamas’ response to the ceasefire proposal.
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Tucker Carlson Says to Air Interview with President of Iran
Tucker Carlson speaks on July 18, 2024 during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photo: Jasper Colt-USA TODAY via Reuters Connect
US conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson said in an online post on Saturday that he had conducted an interview with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, which would air in the next day or two.
Carlson said the interview was conducted remotely through a translator, and would be published as soon as it was edited, which “should be in a day or two.”
Carlson said he had stuck to simple questions in the interview, such as, “What is your goal? Do you seek war with the United States? Do you seek war with Israel?”
“There are all kinds of questions that I didn’t ask the president of Iran, particularly questions to which I knew I could get an not get an honest answer, such as, ‘was your nuclear program totally disabled by the bombing campaign by the US government a week and a half ago?’” he said.
Carlson also said he had made a third request in the past several months to interview Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be visiting Washington next week for talks with US President Donald Trump.
Trump said on Friday he would discuss Iran with Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.
Trump said he believed Tehran’s nuclear program had been set back permanently by recent US strikes that followed Israel’s attacks on the country last month, although Iran could restart it at a different location.
Trump also said Iran had not agreed to inspections of its nuclear program or to give up enriching uranium. He said he would not allow Tehran to resume its nuclear program, adding that Iran did want to meet with him.
Pezeshkian said last month Iran does not intend to develop nuclear weapons but will pursue its right to nuclear energy and research.
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Hostage Families Reject Partial Gaza Seal, Demand Release of All Hostages
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – As Israeli leaders weigh the contours of a possible partial ceasefire deal with Hamas, the families of the 50 hostages still held in Gaza issued an impassioned public statement this weekend, condemning any agreement that would return only some of the abductees.
In a powerful message released Saturday, the Families Forum for the Return of Hostages denounced what they call the “beating system” and “cruel selection process,” which, they say, has left families trapped in unbearable uncertainty for 638 days—not knowing whether to hope for reunion or prepare for mourning.
The group warned that a phased or selective deal—rumored to be under discussion—would deepen their suffering and perpetuate injustice. Among the 50 hostages, 22 are believed to be alive, and 28 are presumed dead.
“Every family deserves answers and closure,” the Forum said. “Whether it is a return to embrace or a grave to mourn over—each is sacred.”
They accused the Israeli government of allowing political considerations to prevent a full agreement that could have brought all hostages—living and fallen—home long ago. “It is forbidden to conform to the dictates of Schindler-style lists,” the statement read, invoking a painful historical parallel.
“All of the abductees could have returned for rehabilitation or burial months ago, had the government chosen to act with courage.”
The call for a comprehensive deal comes just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for high-stakes talks in Washington and as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are expected to resume in Doha within the next 24 hours, according to regional media reports.
Hamas, for its part, issued a statement Friday confirming its readiness to begin immediate negotiations on the implementation of a ceasefire and hostage release framework.
The Forum emphasized that every day in captivity poses a mortal risk to the living hostages, and for the deceased, a danger of being lost forever. “The horror of selection does not spare any of us,” the statement said. “Enough with the separation and categories that deepen the pain of the families.”
In a planned public address near Begin Gate in Tel Aviv, families are gathering Saturday evening to demand that the Israeli government accept a full-release deal—what they describe as the only “moral and Zionist” path forward.
“We will return. We will avenge,” the Forum concluded. “This is the time to complete the mission.”
As of now, the Israeli government has not formally responded to Hamas’s latest statement.
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