Delaney Cortazzo

Sister Ann

Faith, Religion, and Society

08 December 2014

Faith In Action

On

Tuesday November 4, I attended the Kristallnact Remembrance Service. I learned a

great deal of information at this service. I learned exactly what the Jews had to go

through during the Holocaust.

Six million Jewish men and women were taken by other human beings to die in

gas and fire. Their ashes were spewed from the chimneys of Auschwitz. There were one

and a half million children killed among the six million. They all were left graveless and

nameless. The service lit six candles for the six million Jews that been killed. There were

about 200 synagogues set ablaze and destroyed, and 7,500 businesses and homes

ransacked. Right then and there the Nazis killed about one hundred Jews, and nearly

25,000 Jews were shipped off to the nearest concentration camps. There were victims

that spent up to eight and a half years in the concentration camps. I am stunned that

one person could have that much power to create a group to kill millions of people.

From 1938- 1945 Jewish voices were heard reciting prayers and biblical texts on

the trains to the concentration camps, at the doors of the gas chambers, in hiding, and

fighting the enemy. They had faith in God that they would somehow survive. Not only

did six million Jews die, but millions of Poles, Gypsies, Russians, other Europeans,
homosexuals, and the handicapped also ended their lives as victims of the Nazisms evil,

effective way of killing.

There was a guest speaker, Fritz Ottenheimer, that came to speak to us. He was

a survivor of the Holocaust. He talked about how awful the Holocaust was. Hearing

someone that actually lived through and survived the holocaust brought it to life. He

made me feel like I also lived through it. He was amazing!

The service related to this course because we learned about the Jewish religion.

We learned about the Creed of the Jews, and they read the Creed allowed during the

service. This creed states, Hear, O Isreal the Lord is our God, the Lord is One! You shall

love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with your soul and with all your might.

The service also played songs and read prayers of the Jews, and that relates back to the

religion that we learned in class. I really enjoyed the service, it taught me things about

the holocaust and the Jewish religion that I never knew. It honored the Jews more than

anyone could imagine. The service stated We hope all human beings will live life

together in harmony and that light will overcome the darkness of prejudice,

persecution, war, hatred, and genocide. It encouraged everyone to stop judging, no

matter what religion someone practices, as did this class.