Today is Yom HaShoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day. I was reminded of this when I saw a post on one of the blogs that I follow: The Pietist Schoolman. In his blog post today, Chris Gehrz, has a good writeup about Yom HaShoah. You can click on the link to read more about the significance of this day.

Today is a day of reflection and remembrance of the Holocaust.

I will share a few pictures that help me reflect on the Holocaust.

A cold gray day set the tone for a somber visit to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp near Weimar, Germany in November 2006. This picture is of the main entrance gate of the camp. I have visited the site two times over the years. Each visit was a time of reflection and remembrance of what happened at this site.

The second picture is also from Buchenwald and is of a memorial that is called the Living Memorial. The memorial is kept at body temperature at all times. This is the memorial that President Obama placed a Pale Yellow Rose on during his visit to Buchenwald in June 2006.

I visited the site with a group of young students which included the daughter of one of my German co-workers. Observing the students during the visit and their reactions was insightful. At the end of our visit we each placed a rose on the memorial.