Harry Kozuch will never forget the Holocaust. He’ll never forget being taken to a labour camp at 16, then to two concentration camps. He’ll never forget his parents, who were killed in a gas chamber in Auschwitz. And he’ll never forget that 33 members of his family were murdered in a few short years.
Beth Ezekiel Synagogue’s Holocaust memorial, created by Brahm Friedlander and Ofra Svorai, will be unveiled Apr. 11 in Owen Sound, Ont.
But for Kozuch, one person’s memories are not enough.
“In my extended family, from my father’s and mother’s side, there were 33 members that perished in the Holocaust,” Kozuch, 84, said. “Who remembers them?”
Kozuch was born in Poland and later immigrated to Canada. When he moved from Toronto to Owen Sound, Ont., three years ago he was surprised to learn that the town had no Holocaust memorial. So he voiced his opinion.
“Here in Owen Sound, there’s a shul, a Jewish community, and there was not a single memorial or anything to remember the six million Jews,” he said. “I started to talk about it.”
And the town agreed, said Aly Boltman, an administrator at the city’s Beth Ezekiel synagogue and the chair of the Holocaust memorial committee.
“One of our survivors… said, ‘I really feel there’s a lack here.’
“We all looked at each other and said, ‘Of course [there is],’” she said. “It was never a question of should we, it was more of a question of how should we.”
The Jewish community in Owen Sound is a small one, and eight or nine years ago, it was even smaller.
In 2001, Beth Ezekiel synagogue had only 15 families, and the Jewish population was decreasing. A Holocaust memorial wasn’t an option.
“It was this fatalistic attitude that the synagogue can’t survive. [Jews] were watching kids move to cities. [The Jewish community] was just sort of struggling,” Boltman said.
But times have changed. While the community is still small, Beth Ezekiel is thriving. In 2007, 52 families were involved in the synagogue. Now, the shul has about 120 members, or 60 families.
In 2008, the synagogue began to fundraise for the memorial, which will be unveiled on Apr. 11.
“It went fantastically well,” Boltman said of the fundraising event, an auction called Let My People Bid.
The memorial itself is a large tree, carved out of wood, with a yellow star at its centre, a dove at the top, barbed wire and a banner with the Hebrew phrase for “to remember and not to forget.”
It was created by Brahm Friedlander, a woodcarver, and Ofra Svorai, a painter, and took about 1,000 hours to make.
Gary Weinger, the synagogue’s vice-president, understands the importance of a Holocaust memorial. His parents were Holocaust survivors, and he learned about their experiences as a child, while hiding under the table at get-togethers.
“I got a first-hand historical account [of the Holocaust] from my father and all the men that would come together,” he said. “It’s easy to forget and put things in the back of your mind and just go through daily life. It’s something that needs to be remembered.”
For Weinger, seeing the design for the memorial was an emotional experience.
“[The tree] is a symbol of great rooting and strength. The first thing that came to my mind is I saw my mother and father behind the iron gates and barbed wire,” he said.
“If you just look at [the memorial] as a piece of artwork…, it might not reach you… For us, it really means something.”
The memorial’s formal unveiling will take place on Apr. 11 at 7 p.m. at Beth Ezekiel Synagogue and will be followed by the screening of Our Father’s Bar Mitzvah, a documentary about the life of a Beth Ezekiel member and Holocaust survivor made by a local filmmaker.
For more information, e-mail [email protected].
