Holocaust Catch-22 – Tale of two dedication dates
This article has won an SPJ award and was first published in our monthly Today Magazine — the topic is timeless and surely relevant today
By Aliyana White
Special to Today Magazine
Editor's Note — Aliyana White is a senior at Avon High School in Connecticut and one of two student representatives on the Avon Board of Education for the 2024-25 school year.
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Following is the speech she gave at the dedication of the Abby Weiner Holocaust Memorial Library that is part of the AHS Library Media Center — at the dedication in April 2023, a portrait of Abby painted by Avon High's Bebeann Oh was unveiled.
Aliyana is a member of the high school's UNICEF and Amnesty International club that was the motivating force for the dedication of this special library in honor of Abraham “Abby” Weiner — a Holocaust survivor who teacher Stuart Abrams describes as "the greatest teacher I ever had" •
• Cover Story on library – Post-Holocaust Hope: Honoring Shoah survivor
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First, I want to thank everyone for coming to Abby Weiner’s portrait reveal. His amazing legacy will continue to live on, and he will forever be known and memorialized in the Avon High School library.
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Today is April 19. This event was originally planned for tomorrow, April 20. At first glance, you might assume this is just an ordinary day. However, it was meticulously thought out by our UNICEF club. When April 20 was pitched as the event day, nobody thought anything of it until Mr. Abrams paused and shook his head — April 20 is Adolf Hitler’s birthday.
The day an inexplicable evil presence was born. A celebration of a man who destroyed the lives of millions. Holding a portrait memorial for a Shoah survivor on Hitler’s birthday seemed inappropriate. It seemed like a mockery, not just to Abby but to all those affected by Hitler.
It seemed final. We had to move the date. We couldn’t hold the dedication on the 20th. Or was April 20 the perfect day? By holding Abby’s portrait reveal on April 20, wouldn’t it be beautifully disgraceful to Hitler?
A Shoah survivor being cherished and remembered by many on the day the man who persecuted him was born. A subtle “you failed” to Hitler. You failed to annihilate the Jewish people — they’re here, you’re not. You failed to destroy their culture and rid history of their impact.
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Abby is proof that everything you tried to do stood no chance to a strong and loving community. Abby had courage. Courage and strength that you never had. Abby reminds us of the true meaning of love, life and bravery. You, on the other hand, serve as a painful reminder of how dark and disgusting the world can be. But not anymore. We won’t let you overshadow the survivors.
By remembering the lives of victims and holding such an event on April 20, we are transforming the date. Instead of a day of sick celebration for one of the darkest times in human history, we turn it into a day of celebration for Abby and the people harmed by the Shoah and its lasting effects.
Sadly, we did have to move the date due to scheduling reasons, but it seems our event landed on an even better day: April 19, 2023 is the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, one of the biggest acts of Jewish resistance against the Nazis.
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Despite the terror the Jews were facing, they fought back. These brave people were able to prove to their oppressors, and to history, that they weren’t numbers. They weren’t numbers, they were living, breathing individuals with the ability to take action.
That resistance demonstrated in Warsaw is still present today in many different people. Especially in somebody like Abby. His promotion of peace and his love of humanity triumphs over any hate we continue to see in the world.
Today may mean many things, beautiful and tragic alike. But, more than anything, today is Abby’s day. +
This story received a second-place SPJ award in the June 2023 edition of Today Magazine, our monthly publication — Aliyana White was a sophomore at Avon High School when this story was originally published
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