30th Anniversary Guardians Commemorative Book - Book - Page 157
SETTING THE
PRECEDENT
The greatest benefit
I have received from
my involvement with
the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum
has been my participation in the
International Travel Program.
Those of us Legacy of Light Society
members fortunate enough to
participate in this program have
experienced such bittersweet,
lifelong memories. I stood at the mass
gravesites in Auschwitz, said kaddish
at Babi Yar, and witnessed other
reminders of killings and atrocities
that befell the Jews of Europe.
I have also witnessed the way our
Museum’s delegation has been
greeted by the governments of
the countries we visited. We were
treated with honor and respect,
and embraced with deep apologies
and warmth. They know we are
a group fiercely committed to
documenting, preserving, and
sharing this tragic history.
As a child, I heard stories of Jewish
life in Romania, as this was the
birthplace of my grandparents.
It took Romania a long time
to acknowledge its role in the
Holocaust. Because of the neverending work of Elie Wiesel and
Museum scholars, Romania finally
admitted the truth. I was among the
group that attended the unveiling
of the Holocaust memorial in
Bucharest. My tears were both happy
and sad as I could see what can
be accomplished by a group such
as ours. It was there that I made a
commitment to myself and to the
Museum to become a Legacy of Light
Guardian Founder. My gift is to be
used to fund whatever the Museum
feels needs to be done to ensure that
this never happens again. It is to be
used to educate people to always be
free of religious persecution.”
SAFEGUARDING TRUTH FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS l 155
