Dora Rosenblatt, z"l

June 15, 2009

I paid my respects today to Dora Rosenblatt. She was a Romanian Jew murdered by the Nazis when she was 1 year of age, one of the 1.5 million Jewish children slaughtered in the Holocaust. The Children’s Memorial at Yad Vashem is stunning and on this, my third visit, more so than it has been in the past. The visual part of the memorial—a darkened chamber, the only light coming from the glass and mirrors reflecting what seem to be innumerable, flickering candles in a huge glass tower, in the middle--creates the sensation of falling through outer space, as if I can reach out and touch the stars. Each star represents the unique spark of life that was snuffed out or perhaps the soul that remains, even though the life was obliterated. The audio, with the somber, rhythmic reading of the names of children has also been fixed in my memory, but what I did not recall from past visits was hearing the recitation of the age and country of origin of each child. This tiny bit of information gives each child an identity, even if only the simple addition of an age and country, personalizing the loss. Who can fathom 6 million murdered victims, who can comprehend 1.5 million murdered children? I wanted to make this personal, so in the dark I scribbled her name on a tiny scrap of paper from my wallet. Dora Rosenblatt, 1 year old, from Romania. May her memory be a blessing.