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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/37850/full/37850/keeping-the-story-alive-remembering-the-holocaust/ <br /><br /> <b>Keeping the story alive: Remembering the Holocaust</b> <br /> Thursday, April 23, 2009 | by amanda pazornik <br /><br /><p>Ruth Turner’s parents strongly believed in helping others, even as filth and disease permeated their small living space in the Shanghai Ghetto, an overcrowded, square-mile section of the Chinese city designated for Jewish refugees during World War II.</p> <p>So when a fellow Jew knocked on the Turners’ door, they instantly welcomed him. To express his gratitude, the man gave young Ruth a candy bar — a Baby Ruth.</p> <p>“It had chocolate and peanuts. I was so excited,” Turner remembered. “It even had my name on it.”</p> <p>Those few minutes of joy would stay with Turner, coming after the horrific incidents she and her family experienced in Germany and China, before settling in San Francisco by way of Montreal. </p> <p>She spoke of her family’s ordeal at “Telling the Story: Creating Continuity,” an event commemorating Yom HaShoah on April 19 at the Friedman Center in Santa Rosa. </p> <div class="capDivLeft" style="width: 360px;"><img alt="BAyomhashoah" class="left" height="249" src="/images/uploads/z_photos_2009/zh_04_24_09/BAyomhashoah.jpg" title="Holocaust survivor Henry Libicki lights a candle with Sonoma State junior Ayla Uffenheimer. photo/owen scott shirwo" width="360" /> <div class="caption">Holocaust survivor Henry Libicki lights a candle with Sonoma State junior Ayla Uffenheimer. photo/owen scott shirwo</div> </div> “I felt guilty for so long that I survived,” said Turner, fighting back tears. “My parents would tell me how lucky they were to have me and that they loved me. That is why I’m not in a database, and I’m here today to share my story.” <p>Turner was one of many speakers to address the audience of about 200 — a mixture of Holocaust survivors and their families, members of Sonoma County’s Jewish community, high school and college students.</p> <p>The annual Holocaust Remembrance Day observance is a program of the Jewish Community Center, Sonoma County and local synagogues, and the Alliance for the Study of the Holocaust at Sonoma State. The Jewish Community Relations Council, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and Remember Us: The Holocaust B’nai Mitzvah Project also sponsored the event.</p> <p>SSU students Ayla Uffenheimer and Sivon Yahdav spoke early in the program, reminding young adults of their responsibility to create continuity between their generation, future generations and Holocaust survivors.</p> <p>“Throughout my life, I have always heard the words, ‘We will never forget,’ ” said Uffenheimer, whose grandfather survived the Holocaust. “And I’ve always thought, how could we forget?”</p> <p>Yahdav echoed her friend’s sentiments, focusing on the bravery of her grandparents, who stood by their Jewish faith in the aftermath of the Holocaust.</p> <p>“If it were not for their firm belief in Judaism, its traditions and culture would never have been passed down to me,” she said. “I have benefited from identifying myself through Judaism ... It is my duty to pass down the Jewish faith, culture, tradition, religion and history.”</p> <p>To represent continuity among the generations, six local Holocaust survivors, each linked arm-in-arm with a high school or college student, lit six candles for the 6 million Jews who perished.</p> <p>Gesher Calmenson, who helped coordinate the event, introduced the Remember Us project, which connects teens preparing for their bar or bat mitzvah with the story of a child who died in the Holocaust. Jewish Community High School of the Bay students Saul Beck, Talia Beck and Alexander Preneta played a musical tribute, with traditional klezmer and the haunting melodies of Mendelssohn. And Avi Ballo, a freshman at Santa Rosa High School, read his award-winning essay about the Holocaust.</p> <p>For Turner, the greatest gift that emerged from the Holocaust was the chance to have a family. Her daughter Linda Bornstein and granddaughter Andrea Bornstein also shared their thoughts that day. </p> <p>Andrea told of the sorrow visible in her “omi’s” eyes, even though her grandmother has been able to put the Holocaust behind her.</p> <p>“I would not be here today if my four grandparents had not escaped Europe,” Andrea said. “I get a special feeling because it’s part of my family’s history. They survived what millions of people did not.”</p>

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