30th Anniversary Guardians Commemorative Book - Book - Page 137
STAYING
RELEVANT
We both lost dozens
of relatives in the
Holocaust. My mother,
Ruth Pissetzky, came
to New York before the war from
Motele, in what is now Belarus.
During the 1920s, her three younger
brothers went to Israel, but five
other siblings remained behind.
What I remember most is my
mother going to HIAS repeatedly,
searching for information about her
relatives. Her brother Shmuel was
the president of the Motele society
in Israel. They sent an expedition to
Belarus and discovered that Motele
had been destroyed and all its
residents murdered. Similarly, Ellen’s
grandfather came to America from
Hungary. Unable to contact relatives
there after the war, he eventually
learned his entire family had perished.
After losing her siblings, my
mother was deeply depressed,
profoundly affecting my sister,
brother, and me. In 1950, after the
War for Independence, I worked
on kibbutzim in Israel for two
years with the youth movement
Hashomer Hatzair. This included
building roads at Kibbutz Dalia,
which had many survivors.
The United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum’s role in
education is so important. If we don’t
provide for the Museum’s future,
how can we ask others to contribute?
The vast majority of Museum visitors
are not Jewish. Many people have
never heard of the Holocaust, much
less learned about it in school. In
addition to thousands of students
on class trips, even leaders of other
nations who come to Washington
go there. And it provides highquality educational materials on
the Holocaust to any teacher or
school system that requests them,
extending that knowledge beyond
individuals who visit in person.
The Museum stays relevant not
simply because of the Holocaust
story but because it helps people
understand the need to accept
others. Its lessons remain current as
well as historical. We are seeing today
what happens in other countries
when one population is targeted
for elimination because its people
are different. If there isn’t a voice to
stop them, a tragedy similar to the
Holocaust can happen.”
SAFEGUARDING TRUTH FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS l 135
