Most striking to me are these excerpts:
"Dr. Joseph Thon, head of the General Zionist Organization of Poland and former Editor of the Polish daily Chwila of Lwow, pleaded for support. "Mr. Mayor, at this moment we stand before you as mourners and with hearts full of pain. In our desperation we ask your voice to be heard...Mr. Mayor, help us bring our message to places where the fate of our surviving brothers and sisters may be decided. Help us save them!Chaim Yisrael Chai! The folk of Israel will live forever!"
From his chair on the podium, Mayor La Guardia may have heard these cries for help more acutely than the crowd knew. Mayor La Guardia's mother was Jewish, and his biographer Thomas Kessner writes that, "although La Guardia did not think of himself as a Jew, his estranged sister was in Europe and he was aware that she had been taken away by the Nazis."[2] The Mayor calls the event "one of the most impressive ceremonies that has ever taken place at this historic spot..."Every man and woman here assembled is mourning the death of some dear one who was brutally and cruelly murdered by the armed forces of the Nazi government.”
"
Mayor La Guardia told his audience of survivors and mourners their voices would be heard. "The American people understand the plight of the people of Jewish faith in Europe. The need to go to their rescue is high on the list of the military actions that are to take place before long."
Although the Mayor was optimistic, little changed. On the home front, U.S. immigration laws were so zealously enforced that even official quotas for Jews were not filled. Many who were turned away were sent to concentration camps. Long after the war ended, crowds continued to attend memorials in the hopes of finding friends and family they had lost.
"
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Defiant Requiem (Verdi)
Scroll to bottom of this page and play the trailer:
http://www.wqxr.org/#!/blogs/operavore/2013/apr/01/defiant-requiem-reprises-holcaust-era-performance-verdi/?utm_source=/blogs/neh-preservation-project/2013/apr/07/70th-anniversary-warsaw-ghetto-uprising/&utm_medium=treatment&utm_campaign=morelikethis
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