Members of the U.S. diplomatic and navy neighborhood in Bahrain attended and took part within the remembrance ceremony, together with the U.S. ambassador to Bahrain and Rear Adm. Sean Bailey, deputy commander of NAVCENT and U.S. fifth Fleet.
“As we keep in mind harmless victims who endured tragic and unthinkable circumstances by the hands of antisemitism, we additionally honor the perseverance, braveness and power of those that survived,” mentioned Bailey throughout remarks on the ceremony. “We should reject prejudice, we should reject hate speech and we should reject antisemitism.”
The Holocaust was a systemic genocide, killing six million Jews and hundreds of thousands of others from 1938 to 1945, earlier than and through World Warfare II. Visitor speaker, U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain Steven Bondy, famous the unimaginable perils victims and survivors confronted.
“Households have been erased. Moms and dads, brothers and sisters, youngsters and grandchildren, have been brutally murdered,” mentioned Bondy. “The reverberations of those crimes in opposition to humanity dwell in our collective reminiscence as a result of we made a deliberate effort to report, research and train folks concerning the Holocaust. All pushed by an unshakable dedication – ‘by no means once more.’”
This 12 months’s Division of the Navy theme for Holocaust remembrance was “House and Belonging,” to spotlight the humanity of victims and survivors. Lt. Levi Ceitlin, a rabbi and command chaplain for U.S. fifth Fleet Activity Drive 52, spoke on the ceremony and described an encounter he had 15 years in the past with a Holocaust survivor.
“I used to be in Prague and met a Holocaust survivor who was liberated from a camp 45 miles outdoors of town, and he took me there and confirmed me the camp from his perspective,” mentioned Ceitlin. “He confirmed me what he really skilled. It was a surreal second that introduced an unimaginable expertise to life. It made it actual.”
Bailey additionally honored the 550,000 Jewish women and men who served within the U.S. navy with distinction throughout World Warfare II. Some have been captured and positioned in focus camps, 10,000 died in fight and 36,000 obtained citations for valor.
“Jewish American warfighters maintained their resilience and braveness,” mentioned Bailey.
NAVCENT consists of 8,000 American personnel and households stationed in Bahrain and working within the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Purple Sea, elements of the Indian Ocean and three vital choke factors on the Strait of Hormuz, Suez Canal and Bab al-Mandeb.
