As Prayers For Peace Offered, 

Holocaust Horrors Remembered

By LIBBY CUDMORE • for AllOTSEGO.com

ONEONTA – As candles flickered in remembrance of the six million Jews and five million others killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust, Nathan Batalion, Oneonta, shared his story.

“My stepfather, Gabriel Bross, was a shoe-maker,” he said.  “He survived five different concentration camps because the soldiers needed boots, and even though they said they would kill him when it was all over, the allies freed him.”

Batalion shared his family’s history as part of Temple Beth El’s annual Yom HaShoah service, a memorial of Holocaust Martyrs and a celebration of the heroes who fought the Nazis in the ghettos or who sheltered the Jews from their forces.

“It is important for all people, not just the Jews, to remember the dangers of hate,” said Temple president Ken Sider.  “The Yom HaShoah service is not only about remembering, but thinking about the future and each individuals role in working for peace and justice.”

With readings, prayers, a cantorial solo by Jonathan Jackson and the lighting of candles, participants, some members of the synagogue, others Christians and Muslims, and members of the NAACP, gathered to reflect.

Alice Lichtenstein and Tom Wise accompanied the service with Handel sonatas on recorder and piano.  “In so many of the accounts I’ve read, survivors have written about the transformative power of hearing music in the camps,” she said.  “As a musician and as a human being, I felt this as a unifying force.”

And although Batalion wept as he recounted his family’s stories, he also shared that Bross lived into his 90s, and brought out a photo of him cutting a challah bread during a family meal.  “We must keep vigilant and understand the economic and political forces that caused the Holocaust can still revisit us today,” he said.  “We have a responsibility to keep this from happening.”