The Family Club Shalom went to the mountings to have some rest away from the city. There were children, their mothers and fathers, grandmothers, and grandfathers. Everybody was accommodated in the comfortable Kazakhstan Resort. Every day of rest was full of new impressions. But we remember Holocaust even during the happy days. The Family Club devoted one of the days to talk about the Catastrophe and the heroism of the European Jewry.

Lyubov Yakovlevna Koretskaya, Veteran of the Jewish community told how her family was killed during the war, her escape from the concentration camp and work in Germany. She was telling such things that are painful to believe. Once a fascist came up to her and asked "Jude?" Then he contemplated "No need to spend a bullet. You will die from hunger any way" and left. Lyuba survived. In total, six million Jews were killed and became our memory. There were tears in everybody’s eyes. Lyubov Yakovlevna finished her story, "Remember the past. Let the Buchenwald Bell never stop sounding in your souls."

There was silence for several minutes. It was hard to talk. Sara Dotsenko remembered her trip to Kiev, to Babiy Yar. "The Soviet Authorities were pretending that there was no Babiy Yar. Only in 2003, Israeli citizens placed a monument here - fifteen steps, menorah and a candle lit for those who lie under the ground. It is especially hard for the children to look at this monument. They see a cake with traces of children’s teeth on it, a doll with a torn head, a boy’s kippah… Together with Jews there were people of different ethnical origins. They all died in Babyi Yar. It is hard to see it and listen to it but this must not be forgotten.

Svetlana Ivanovna Nezhinskaya remembered how she visited Israeli museum Yad-Vashem. She told how two sisters, who had lost each other during the war, visited Yad-Vashem after the war and were able to meet each other again. Each of them left the name of her sister in the museum archive. The museum employees analyzed the data and made it possible for them to find each other after so many years. There is a Lane of Peace in Jerusalem. Each tree was planted in honor of a righteous person who had saved Jews.

Galina Korobkina, Director of the Republican Jewish Library, made a presentation of archive documents related to the War period. This exhibition was presented in eight cities of Kazakhstan by President of Mitsva Association Alexander Baron. The Mitsva Association has also issued two books about the evacuation of industrial enterprises and civil population to Kazakhstan during the war. The young people were very interested in the exhibition documents and copies of the book.

The Family club takes a lot of care of its children. Everybody makes its best to help children grow into honest people who know the history and traditions of the Jewish people. To prepare for the event in remembrance of Holocaust the children and their parents were working together. Katya Skipina and Dina Utigaliyeva, the artists, took the lead in this work. But all other people also made their own contribution including Arkadiy Rafailovich Plotkin, Natasha and Timur Azhibayevs, Larisa Skipina, Svetlana Ptitsyna, and Elena Sidorenko. The children did their best to be useful - Liliana Finkel, Lesha Butekno, Nastya and Liza Vilinskiys, Maxim Khalturin, Ratmir Musin, Vanya and Marsel Luchenkovs, Stella Dorozhenko, David Rynkovskiy.

When everything was ready everybody gathered in the conference room. Everybody told about their thoughts and memories, family stories. There were tears in children’s eyes. Sara Dotsenko, "It is hard but we cannot forget it. Our children need to know what the Jewish people had gone through. Poems about Holocaust were recited. There was an improvised memorial fire and lit candles. Three generations of one family: Olga, Natalya, and Alesha Butenkos sang "People of the world, stand up for a minute…" The audience joined in, "Listen, listen to the sound of the bell…"

Let it never happen again to anyone what the "civilized world" has committed once.

Lyudmila Starodubova