‘I was a child Holocaust survivor’: Myrtle Beach man speaks during Israel Memorial Day
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — Myrtle Beach Jewish congregations held a Holocaust and Israel Memorial Day commemoration.
Myrtle Beach Jewish Synagogue and other supporters of Israel gathered Monday at the Chabad Community Center on North Oak Street.
Myrtle Beach resident, Hugo Schiller says he was a Holocaust child survivor. Schiller said he was 9 years old when he spent six months at a concentration camp.
“We were the first jews that were deported out of Germany when France capitulated,” Schiller said. “They were forced to take several thousand German Jewish citizens and build a concentration camp.”
Schiller said he remembers being chosen along with 47 other children by Quakers to be released to a better environment, but the rest of his family didn’t make it.
He said he never thought he would have to experience that again.
“Breakout out of antisemitism,” Schiller said. “What little I remember from when from when I was small, that’s how it started in Germany, guess we haven’t learned as many lessons as we should’ve.”
Rabbi Avi Perets at Temple Emanu-El said the ceremony is special because it’s Israel Memorial Day. He said they’re celebrating the lives of more than 1,600 jews who were killed since October 7th.
“We say never again, ” Perets. “Never again to racism, never again to antisemitism and unfortunately, October 7th came, and Hamas showed us how important it is to remember, because it happens again.”
Rabbi Perets said a lot of people are not understanding because they’re misinformed.
“They do not recognize Israel,” Perets said. “They do not recognize the Israelis, and they’re trying to live in the homeland in the promise land and that will never happen.”
1.3 million butterflies were collected 26 years ago from across the country in a project. Each one symbolizing a child’s life of which was lost.
On Monday, those butterflies were hung up all around the Chabad Community Center.
Mayor Brenda Bethune, Judge Alan Clemmons, and former Mayor Bob Hirsch were other guest speakers at this remembrance.
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Jackie LiBrizzi is a multimedia journalist at News13. Jackie is originally from Hamilton, New Jersey, and was raised in Piedmont, South Carolina. Jackie joined the News13 team in June 2023 after she graduated as a student-athlete from the University of South Carolina in May 2023. Follow Jackie on X, formerly Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, and read more of her work here.
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