#RememberTheYom

April 4, 2018 by J-Wire Newsdesk
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The RememberTheYom team of Robyn Pakula and Larnce Gold who released the stunning image last year of the recreation of the late Joseph Pakula’s Auschwitz Number on Sydney’s Bondi Beach have teamed up again to create another powerful image for Yom Hashoah 2018.

The team chose a railway line in Melbourne to stage its 2018 image.

 

Last month, over 70 survivor family, friends, and the great survivor himself Tuwia Lipson, 92, descended upon Victoria’s Cranbourne East to create a powerful image in honour of Yom Hashoh.

The goal was to make a standing formation of a Magen David over an unused railway line. Everyone was given yellow t-shirts and yellow hats to wear, which signified the yellow Star of David that the Nazis forced all Jews to wear.

Once the formation of the Magen David was complete, the remarkable Tuwia Lipson was carried out to the train line in his wheel chair to sit in the middle of the Shield of David. ‘The strength of Tuwia on Sunday said it all. He waited for over an hour in the car for the wind to settle, and the Magen David to be formed’ said Larnce Gold, Photographer and co-founder of the RememberTheYom movement. ‘When Tuwia was carried into the Magen David the entire mood changed, it was a real moment for everyone. The sixty-six people who were aligned on the tracks started to realise just who they were standing around and what they were doing. With Tuwia in the middle, it was like he was being protected by the Shield of King David’, says Gold.

Tuwia Lipson

As the years go by and survivors are passing-on, second and third generation of survivors are realising how important it is to continue the memory’, says Robyn Pakula, co-founder of RememberTheYom. ‘We aim to create dialogue. A great image is our way of getting people to talk about the Holocaust in a positive meaningful way.’

‘The overwhelming feedback after last year from those who were lying down in the sand during the stillness of the filming was that it was an extremely powerful and moving experience and helped them to connect with their emotions and to take a moment to remember what their parents or grandparents went through many years previously and how lucky we are now to be living in such a beautiful country and area such as Sydney. We wanted to recreate this for the Melbourne Jewish community to experience. For months we have been engaging the Melbourne community and inviting them to be involved. The Melbourne Jewish community is incredibly supportive and were very interested in the project from the beginning, says Pakula.

A 3rd generation survivor, Jayden Beville, 20, had the challenge of being the drone operator. Eventually, Sunday’s heavy wind’s subsided and Jayden was able to launch the drone and capture the image.

“We are in awe of these Survivors. They are our very own Heroes, who survived and created a life for us that we are eternally grateful for. Our generations, cannot imagine what life was like for them during the war nor after. Creating a new life and having the strength and determination to have a family, build businesses and live with their horrors was really something special. We are truly blessed to have been brought up by such a wonderful generation and they deserve to be honoured. We have remarkable lives and they set all of us up for success.” Says Robyn, whose both parents were survivors but are no longer alive.

In 2018, Yom Hashoah, (Holocaust Remembrance Day) falls on the 12th of April.

RememberTheYom is a project created to help remember & honour Yom Hashoah, ‘Holocaust Remembrance Day’ and to inspire and encourage others to create a meaningful and relevant dialogue to help them process and engage in remembering the day.

Please help in joining us to like, upload, repost and share these images and hashtag #remembertheyom to your Instagram accounts and Facebook page.

Comments

One Response to “#RememberTheYom”
  1. Raymond Phillips says:

    Unable to upload any of the photos to Facebook

    The one in particular has more affect (Magen David over rail line) emblematic of the rail line to gates of Auschitz

    Please send to my email address the photos to enable posting on Facebook

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