Yom HaShoah: Holocaust Remembrance Day 2016

 

The years go by so fast. It is hard to believe that World War II ended seventy-one years ago. Yom HaShoah is a day that I can light a candle and remember my grandparents, aunts, uncle and cousins who perished much too soon during the Holocaust. A proud family lost to unabashed evil. For those who find it hard to believe that the Holocaust actually occurred, take a look at my Uncle Dezso’s Prisoner Identification Card, Prisoner Number 57569 at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. He was only forty-four when this profile was compiled. His appearance and the miscellaneous information about him were so detailed down to his missing eight teeth. He died soon later at the age of forty-five due to “heart failure.” Even though I never met my Uncle Dezso, I mourn for him on his Yahrzeit date, one of the few I know, and today. However, I think of him often.

Dezso Perlstein’s Prisoner Identification Card is courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s International Tracing Service files.