Lest We Forget

One of the recent news items that has been lost in the barrage of devastating news of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, was the discovery of another site of unmarked graces at Kapawe’no First Nation in Northern Alberta.  A reported 169 potential graves have been found using ground-penetrating radar at the site of a former residential school.  This latest sad chapter in the history of Canada’s relationship with First Nations again brought back my memory of visiting the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem while I was on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2008 with fellow Anglican’s from the Diocese of Huron.

From my reflection recorded after my visit:

The building in the shape of the pyramid.  Inside the stars shine in the sky to represent the children.  The names, age and nationality are recited continually over the loud speaker in English and Hebrew.  We are asked to remember the name of one child.  I chose Shomo Klien age 14.  Our tour guide, Rachaela declares, “no one will turn their back on us again.”

We are led through exhibits and documentaries and testimonials of those who survived most stark was the mountain of shoes – the ones who wore them long gone but not forgotten. 

Oh God, why have you forsaken your children.

The tears of the dead cry out.

There are enough tears for the children

To fill the Dead Sea.

My tears added to the salt of the Dead Sea

But they cannot be compared to the tears of

Anger, Sorrow, Fear, Loss and Anguish

The mothers were forced to shed

Are we able to know, to remember, and to name, all those who are in those unmarked graves at the sites of the Canadian Holocaust?

Let us remember on our journey the lives of all innocents who have been lost.