Quote of the Day (Father Patrick Desbois, on Childhood Holocaust Victims)

“These were young children who were forced, in the course of one day, to fill the grave and to witness. They heard the last words of the dead. They want to speak."-French Catholic priest Father Patrick Desbois, on childhood victims of the Holocaust, quoted in Jordana Horn, “How Father Desbois Became a Holocaust Memory Keeper,” The Wall Street Journal, January 23, 2009

(Fr. Desbois, himself the grandson of a prisoner of the Nazis, has taken on the mission of uncovering previously undocumented Jewish victims of the Nazi regime, including an estimated 1.5 million in Ukraine. In the latter region, unlike the death camps, the method of execution consisted of mobile killing units who made it their specialty to force, at gunpoint, locals—including, horribly, hundreds of children—to assist with the execution.

An exhibit describing this crucial work of historical memory, “The Shooting of Jews in Ukraine: Holocaust by Bullets,” will run until March 15 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. Fr. Desbois sounds indefatigable in his use of archival research, eyewitness accounts, and photographs. Seldom have the methods of historical been employed to such startling—and necessary—effect.
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Fr. Desbois helps ensures that these crimes will never be forgotten. It’s up to us to ensure that they’ll never be repeated.)