Holocaust event marked by warnings of 'genocide'
By Kevin Rothstein
The Boston Herald
Genocide in Sudan and the militant group Hamas' victory in the Palestinian elections this week were somber backdrops to Holocaust memorial services yesterday at the State House.
"Right now as we speak there is an ongoing genocide in Western Sudan," Sudanese refugee David Gai told a packed House chamber. Gai, now studying at UMass-Boston, was invited to speak at the state's Holocaust International Day of Remembrance by Jewish organizers, who said the anti-genocide pledge of "never again" was falling on deaf international ears.
"My hope is having this memorial today we will put an end to all memorials," said Nancy K. Kaufman, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council.
This year's Holocaust memorial service came on the 61st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the notorious Nazi death camp, where an estimated 1.5 million innocents died under Hitler.
Also in attendance yesterday was Wolfgang Vorwerk, consul general of Germany to New England, and ribbon-bedecked veterans of the Soviet Red Army, which liberated Auschwitz.
"We're not here to open old wounds or point fingers. We're here to remember and not let the others forget," said Auschwitz survivor Israel Arbeiter of the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Greater Boston.
In Darfur, Sudan, former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said in September 2004 the civilian killings there amounted to genocide. An estimated 400,000 have been killed since 2003.
This week's Hamas victory did not encroach on the somber ceremonies, but Jewish leaders and others said afterward they feared for the future. "Hamas and Hitler equal, and Iran-Hamas, death of U.S.A. and Israel," said Arkady Plotkin, an elderly Soviet immigrant who struggle to express his frustration.
"It's not a very happy day in the Mideast for those who are looking for a real development," Meir Shlomo, Israel's consul general in Boston. "what you have is a terrorist winning the election."
