Thank you to Teach the Shoah for hosting the event at which the video was recorded, and for giving me the opportunity to tell this story.
Using her own little candelabra, my mother Freda lit the candles on Yom Hashoah in 1952, when she was only 10 years old.
She so moved the poet Yoseph Papiernikov, that he wrote a poem about her in Yiddish. Freda, my mother, felt the torment of her parent’s memories. living in a society filled with post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor guilt.
As she lit the candles she recalled her grandparents Riva and Yoshuah Shreero and her uncle and aunt Dovid and Essia Shreero.
Riva and Yoshuah were last seen in the Vilna Ghetto in December 1942. They disappeared without a trace. Dovid and Essia moved to Lida, hoping for a better future. They were brutally murdered in the Lida Massacre.
On this Yom Hashoah we hold a beautiful memory for each member of my family and every one of the more than six million Jews, counted and uncounted, whose flames were cruelly snuffed out.
Never Forget.
In Tog fuhn Troyer
by J Papiernikov - dedicated to Freda Shreero Neimann
ln tog fuhn troyer noch di zex million,
Ven s'folk dekt op di nisht-farheilte vundn:
Hott Fredele (vi s’volt a groyse dos getohn)-
Genumen un aleyn zex lichtlech ongetzundn.
Ongetzundn, un avekgeshtelt zich kukn
Vi zey brenen, vi zey flemlen, vii zey tzukn,
Vi zey tzitern un tzaplen, vi fuhn pachad.
Fredele is mittn troyer zich misyachad.
Shtayt zi shtum azoy inergetz-vu fartrogn,
Zi volt veln epess fregn, epess zogn,
Nor, vi mit a hightele a figh-chte fartzoygn-
Reydn shoyn far ir di groyse kluge oygn.
Kukt zi, kukt vi ihre lichtelech zey vern
Vos amol altz klenner, geyen oys in trern,
Vi zey voltn oychet zeyer goyrl tayln
Mit die zex milllion. un - Fredele nemt tzayln:
Ayn million ... a tzveyter ... s'geit shoyn oys der
dreeter ...
Fihr ... shoyn finf ... un - Fredele zi tuht a tzitter,
S'hot a volkndl fartzoygn ihr gezichtl:
S'iz ihr oysgegungen shoyn dos zekste lichtl ...
In tog fuhn troyer noch die zex million,
ln tog, in aybikn, fuhn tzar un tzorn, -
Zol yedess kind - vi s'hot ess Fredele getohn:
Zex lichtlech ontzindn - di kedoyshim le-zikorn.
On the Day of Mourning
by J Papiernikov - dedicated to Freda Shreero Neimann
On the day of mourning for the 6 million,
When our people uncovers its still raw wounds:
Fredale took her own 6 candles and lit them
as an adult would.
Lit them and stood gazing…
How they burned and how they flickered,
As if shivering in terror.
Fredale united with them in their sorrow.
Standing silent, thoughts elsewhere,
Wanting answers, standing mutely
Her wise, big tear-stained eyes
Spoke for her.
Watching as her candles dwindled
Growing smaller, ever smaller,
Going out in tears of mourning,
Sharing their fate with the 6 million.
And Fredale began counting
One million, a second, the third now dying
Four…now five…
Her face clouded, a shudder shook her -
The sixth candle now extinguished.
On the day of mourning for the 6 million
The eternal day of anguish and of sorrow
Every child should do as she did -
Light 6 candles in sacred memory of our martyrs.