bearcatmark
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Kasich presides over his final Holocaust commemoration
I thought I'd share this article as much focuses on my wife's 95 year old grandfather a pretty incredibly man who escaped Germany during the peak of Hitler's reign. If you ever get the chance to hear him speak around the area I'd recommend it.
https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/news...23d8f.html
Quote:COLUMBUS – “Next time you recite the Pledge of Allegiance, listen to what you are saying and what it means,” said Dr. Al Miller, a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor from Hamilton, Ohio, who told his story of survival April 12 at the 38th annual Ohio
According to Miller, certain words in the Pledge of Allegiance should resonate with people as they recite it. “Liberty,” he said, refers to freedom, not only for themselves, but for everyone. By “justice,” Miller said it is important to be “fair and treat everyone alike.”
Miller was born in Berlin in 1922. His family owned a clothing company, and as a boy, he was involved in sports. When he turned 10, however, life as his family knew it slowly began to change.
“Words were being used to humiliate, demonize and persecute Jews, and it didn’t take me long to discover kids of my age can be cruel," he said. "My friends avoided contact and that hurt. Then it grew to daily physical encounters, spitting and mocking."
According to Miller, the Nazis first move was not to kill the Jews, but rather, to eradicate Jews from public life. For example, artwork and books created by Jews were burned, Jews in government lost their positions and Jewish-owned businesses were taken away.
“In 1935, the very real wake-up call came when all Jews in Germany were stripped of their citizenship,” he said.
Why did Jews stay despite the worsening conditions?
“Many thousands, including my family, deluded themselves that the situation would not continue,” he said.
He was the last Jewish student to remain in his class until it became too uncomfortable for him, too. He attended the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where The Ohio State University runner Jesse Owens, a graduate of East Technical High School in Cleveland, won four medals.
As conditions worsened, Miller’s family made plans to leave Germany and resettle elsewhere. Unfortunately, it was not able to depart as a unit. His parents remained in Germany and endured the events of Nov. 9, 1938, known as Kristallnacht. However, his brother was sent to England and Miller to Switzerland.
State Rep. Dave Greenspan, a Republican from Westlake, and David Heller, of Moreland Hills, a past Member of U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council
In 1939, the family was reunited in England, although the ultimate goal was to get to the United States. In 1941, their applications to move to the U.S. were approved.
“By the age of 17, I had lived in five countries, but none accepted me,” he recalled. That changed when he came to the United States.
Miller settled in Hamilton, where he owned an optometry practice for several decades. He and his wife have three sons and two grandchildren.
Miller said by the end of the Holocaust, when the number of Jewish children under the age of 15 who perished reached 1.5 million, not even Winston Churchill had words to describe the atrocity.
“It was the greatest, most horrible crime in the history of mankind,” Miller said, echoing Churchill.
This Holocaust commemoration marked the second in which state Rep. Dave Greenspan, R-Westlake, has participated in.
“As one of the two Jewish members of the Ohio Legislature, it is important to demonstrate, on behalf of a united legislature, that we will never forget the events of the Holocaust,” Greenspan said.
He presented a resolution, adopted by the Ohio House of Representatives, marking April 12 as Holocaust Commemoration Day, to Rick Carne, of Dayton, a member of the Ohio Jewish Communities.
As he is being term-limited out as Ohio’s governor, John Kasich presided over his eighth and final Holocaust commemoration. He was instrumental in the creation of the monument on the Ohio Statehouse grounds memorializing everyone whose lives were lost in the Holocaust.
State Rep. Dave Greenspan, a Republican from Westlake, presents a resolution from the Ohio House of Representatives declaring April 12, 2018, as Holocaust Commemoration Day to Rick Carne of Dayton, a board member of the Ohio Jewish Communities.
“There are people who say the Holocaust never happened and many people in the world believe that," Kasich said. "We have to present that truth, even when it is difficult.”
He concluded the event by saying, “Let’s change the world. G-d Bless.”
(This post was last modified: 04-18-2018 09:12 AM by bearcatmark.)
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Kasich presides over his final Holocaust commemoration
