Why do people think that the Holocaust is over?
The Nazis killed my grandfather's parents and all of his siblings except for one brother. This brother [my Uncle Mishka] had 3 daughters - all of whom were murdered by the Nazis. His wife ["Aunt Helca"] was unable to conceive again after the war. [She always looked so sad. As an adult today, I can understand why]. The only surviving child in my mother's family was my mother [who was born during the war in hiding].
In other words - had the Nazis not killed my family I would today have hundreds of more cousins. When we have family simchas, all of the relatives come from my father's side - because just about nothing is left from my mother's side. [I do have a cousin who today is 94, lived a sad unfortunate life and suffers from dementia - although she still remembers the Holocaust].
One of my regrets in life is that I was only zocheh to have 6 children [for which I thank Hashem]. I would have much preferred to have 5,999,994 more.
Of course, the tragedy is much much much much greater than my personal loss. I use it to illustrate how individuals who were never there and were not even born yet were affected. The world at large would have countless millions more Jews today. There is no people or race who contribute as much to society as Jews. One example of this is that Nobel Prizes have been awarded to over 900 individuals, of whom at least 20% were Jews, although the Jewish population comprises less than 0.2% of the population.
We have to remember the Holocaust every day because every day we all lose out tremendously on so many different levels.
