It’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. This is my favorite video of my Angel grandpa — he’s singing a Yiddish song he sings a lot called “Hulyet, Hulyet Kinderlech”. It’s a song his mom would sing on Friday with the rest of the siblings while waiting to see three stars in the sky. Today we remember to never forget. It’s amazing how much you can learn with patience and dedication. September 1st 1939 — My Grandpa and his two brothers, his sister, father decided to move to a town in Poland called Lahwah (on the border of Belorussia and Poland). They had hours to pack their things as they moved the same night that Germany invaded Soviet territory so they could stay on Russian side instead of continuing to live in Nazi territory (Poland was split into Russian territory and Nazi territory and they assumed Russia was the safer option). A few months later, Germans broke treaty and invaded the Lahwah town as well — forcing all Jews to live in a ghetto. A few months later the Jews were told the ghetto was to be liquidated for “resettlement”. The adults in the ghetto knew to mean being sent to camps or shot into pits (as they had been digging large holes for months with no explanation but rumors started that other ghettos in Eastern Europe were digging their own graves). Luckily an underground movement of young Zionists was active in this ghetto and an uprising was organized the same night of liquidation, and some 1200 were able to escape. THIS IS ONE OF THE ONLY OCCURRING EXAMPLES OF JEWS ESCAPING A GHETTO. A few survivors have recounted the Jews were screaming Shema Yisrael (the prayer) while running through the flames towards escape. 600 died in the flames of the fire, with another 500 being shot that night. It’s a miracle that Lev’s dad, both brothers, and sister and him were all able to escape that night and survive for quite some time in the marshes. In the end only 90 survived the Lahwah ghetto. Upwards of 70 getting moving to israel after the war ended, with probably 20 continuing on into Belarusian territory with partisan units and settling in USSR (my grandpa and his oldest brother and sister being three of those 20). Every Jewish life is a miracle. Be proud.