As Stalin famously said:
“A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.”
I can’t begin to grasp the concept of six million anything. My brain, like that of most humans, just wasn’t designed to count that high. But they say you can learn at least one thing from everyone, so I chose to learn from Joseph Stalin.
Each year I go to Yad VaShem’s website and find one person to remember. One person I could imagine meeting, talking to, working with, living near. One person whose death is an unspeakable tragedy.
Khava Mahler was a woman who shared my name. She was born in Poland and was murdered in her local marketplace, when she was 5 years younger than I am now. Her mother’s name was Miriam and her husband’s name was David, and her sister wrote all this down so that she would not be forgotten. Her record number at Yad VaShem is 1,735,581.
This year I am remembering her.
If you would like to join me, you can go to the THE CENTRAL DATABASE OF SHOAH VICTIMS’ NAMES and choose a name or photo that speaks to you.
תהא נשמתה צרורה בצרור החיים
Welcome, I’m Havva Mahler, practitioner of Chinese medicine. Basically, I’m like a couples counselor who specializes in the most important relationship in your life, the one between you and your body. You can find out more about me here. Get in touch with me here. Or sign up to get the next blog post delivered straight to your inbox here.
תהא נשמתה צרורה בצרור החיים
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