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Interfaith service promises to remember

Holocaust recollection program shares intimate stories
Theodora Klayman was born in Yugoslavia. She began her talk with an explanation of the history and geography at play in the genocide. She appreciated the sign behind the pulpit, that exclaims positive words like hope. DENY HOWETH PHOTOS
Deny Howeth
May 13, 2019

The Metropolitan Community Church of Rehoboth Beach hosted the Interfaith Holocaust Service May 2, sponsored by the Progressive Interfaith Alliance. 

Members of many faith communities joined together to sing, pray and bear witness to the stories and memories of those who died during the Holocaust. 

After a brief musical and prayer interlude, guest speaker Theodora Klayman told her story as rain and lightning pelted the church. She shared the story of her family and her survival. Klayman’s family was mostly wiped out during her childhood. Showing photographs of her family, she was able to explain her memories and her family stories. 

When she was 3 years old, her mother, who was expecting her baby brother, sent her to stay with her grandparents. Klayman’s life was spared because she was hidden by aunts and family friends, and later, her 9-month-old brother was given to a housekeeper to allow him to be safely reunited with Klayman. 

Her Catholic uncle, his wife, and her brother were the only ones in the family who survived. After the liberation, her uncle, who made it through the war, tried to find other members of the family. Upon finding Klayman and her brother, he adopted them after the war was over. Her brother later contracted scarlet fever and died in three days.

“In these very difficult months, your presence here gives me hope. We are united in fighting hate, fascists, and intolerance. Let’s have hope and say never again,” Klayman said to the gathered audience.

 

Theodora Klayman was born in Yugoslavia. She began her talk with an explanation of the history and geography at play in the genocide. She appreciated the sign behind the pulpit, that exclaims positive words like hope. DENY HOWETH PHOTOS
A packed house listens as Theodora Klayman tells her story.
The evening ends with everyone embracing while singing a song of remembrance.
A group embraces and sings a song of remembrance after many in the congregaton shared stories of the Holocaust that touched their lives.
Reb Lisa Levine leads the congregation in song.
The Rev. Chet Carrbaugh of Safe Harbor UMC reads a responsive text written by Martin Neimoeller.
Theodora Klayman shows family photographs.
Everyone, in this photograph, except three people, was killed in a concentration camp by the end of the war.
Theodora Klayman commented that the photographer took pains to accentuate the badge that Jews were required to wear.
The congregation was rapt with Theodora Klayman’s story.
The Rev. Diane Fisher, left, helps an audience member light a candle in remembrance of her dad.
Sue Towers lights a candle for her father’s family. He escaped the concentration camps because he was useful as a translator.
The Rev. Diane Fisher begins the remembrance and lighting of candles.
The Rev. Michelle Collins of UUSD recites a poem: “Where No One Has a Name.”
Cantor George Mason chants a memorial prayer in Hebrew.
A small film at the end of the talk voiced a plea to carry on the story and remember.
Candles were lit in memory of those who were lost.

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