remembrance

Volunteers are helping forgotten Dutch diarists of WWII to speak at last. Their voices, filled with anxiety, isolation and uncertainty, resonate powerfully today. Anne Frank listened in an Amsterdam attic on March 28, 1944, as the voice of the Dutch minister of education came crackling over the radio from London. “Preserve your diaries and letters,” he said. Frank was not the only one listening. Thousands of Dutch people had been recording their experiences under German occupation since the Nazi invasion four years earlier. So the words of the minister, part of a government trying to operate from exile in England, resonated.

Dia de los Muertos is a traditional Mexican and Latin American holiday in which the living commemorate the memories of their dead ancestors. Although occurring at the same time of year as Halloween and sharing a common imagery of death – Dia de los Muertos decorations and foods prominently feature skull and skeleton motifs.This holiday does not consider the dead to be morbid or frightening; rather, they are objects of affection and even humor. Families visit the graves of loved ones, share meals, and build altars in their homes to their memory.

Alan Turing (June 23, 1912 – June 7, 1954) was once a hero in England. He helped the government crack German Codes during World War II and developed the Turning Machine, establishing the framework for today’s modern computers and was generally regarded as one of the nation’s brightest stars. Then, in 1952, Turing was outed, leading to a very public trial, conviction and chemically castrated for “gross indecency.” He killed himself two years later. Now, 60+ years on, the British government is honoring Turing by including him in a series of twelve new “Britons of Distinction” stamps set to be released to coincide with the year of the 100 anniversary of his birth. George Broadhead, secretary of the Humanist group the Pink Triangle Trust, celebrated Turing’s inclusion in a press release. “This is richly deserved,” he wrote. “It is well known that Turing was gay, but perhaps not so well known that he was a staunch atheist.

The name of Fredy Hirsch is inseparably connected with the education of children and young people in the Terezín ghetto, and finally in the “family camp“ at Birkenau. In particular, the “children’s block,“ established on Hirsch’s initiative in the BIIb section of the Birkenau camp, was a remarkable attempt to create a small oasis within the death camp. Its main purpose was to ensure that Auschwitz’s youngest prisoners had, at least for a short while, a more tolerable environment in which they would be isolated from the tragic reality around them.

María Félix, the accomplished Mexican film actress who was known for defying stereotypes and famously turning down Hollywood roles, would have turned 104 years-old on Sunday, April 8, 2018. To celebrate her birthday, Google is honoring her with her own Google Doodle. The Mexican star, who died in April 8,2002 at age 87, acted in more than 47 films in her lifetime and was a muse to famous artists and writers like Diego Rivera and Jean Cocteau. Her incredible career spanned more than three decades. The entire time she “reigned as the supreme goddess of Spanish-language cinema,” according to her New York Times obituary.

Haym Salomon (April 7, 1740 – Jan. 6, 1785) was a Polish-born American Jewish businessman and political financial broker who immigrated to New York City from Poland during the period of the American Revolution. He helped convert the French loans into ready cash by selling bills of exchange for Robert Morris, the Superintendent of Finance. In this way he aided the Continental Army and was possibly, along with Morris, the prime financier of the American side during the American Revolutionary War against Great Britain.