Madison Heights library to host Holocaust panel discussion

MADISON HEIGHTS — An estimated six million Jews were murdered by Nazi Germany and its allies during the Holocaust and World War II, many of them in state-sponsored death camps. Today, those who witnessed the horrors firsthand are dwindling in number, while a recent report points to an increase in antisemitic hate crimes.

An upcoming talk at the Madison Heights Public Library, 240 W. 13 Mile Road, will feature a survivor of the Holocaust, as well as the daughter of one. The panel discussion, set for 6-7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 25, is timed to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day two days later. The talk is co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council — part of the American Jewish Committee — and the Zekelman Holocaust Center.

Asher Lopatin, a rabbi and executive director at JCRC/AJC, will moderate the panel, which will feature testimony from Holocaust survivor Irene Miller as well as Kari Alterman, a child of survivors. There will be a question-and-answer session afterward.

“A lot of the Holocaust survivors are dying off. And when all these survivors are dying, we are unfortunately losing all of their personal stories as well,” said Daniel Bucksbaum, a Madison Heights resident who serves as the Israel and Young Leadership associate for the JCRC.

“It’s important to highlight their stories as much as possible. Antisemitism has surged, especially since the (Israel-Hamas conflict). The latest poll from our parent organization (AJC) shows 70% of Jews feel less safe after the (terrorist attacks) of Oct. 7. Frankly, whenever there is any conflict involving Israel, Jews around the world are expected to answer for it. But it’s terrible, and we don’t want this war. Now we are seeing antisemitism interspersed in the protests since it began. We’re at a point where the hateful rhetoric is becoming normalized.”

According to a 2023 report published by the Anti-Defamation League analyzing antisemitic incidents across the U.S. in 2022, there was a 36% increase in hate crimes against Jews compared to 2021. The ADL has been tracking antisemitic incidents since 1979 and noted that the 2022 totals were the third time in five years that the year-end total had been the highest ever recorded.

With Jews continuing to face such trends, society must stand up to Holocaust deniers who are trying to rewrite history, said Madison Heights Mayor Roslyn Grafstein, who is Jewish.

“We, as a global society, need to remember the atrocities committed during World War II, and understand the historical context and factors that led to the senseless genocide, so that history can never ever be repeated,” she said in an email.

Grafstein’s own family were victims of the Holocaust. While her grandparents and many of their family members left Poland before the Nazi occupation, there was a brother — Nusin Dovid Grafstein — who stayed with his wife and children. They were later killed at Auschwitz.

“Their slaughter cut off a limb of the Grafstein family tree. Cousins never met,” Grafstein said. “In the 1930s, after my grandparents left for North America, there were over 200,000 Jewish people in Lodz, Poland. But by 1945, when Lodz was finally liberated, there were less than 800 Jewish people still living there.

“This is the story of my family, but there are millions more,” Grafstein said. “Remembering the Holocaust and those we lost helps to preserve the historical truth, and confront the deniers.”

Sean Fleming, another Jewish member of the Madison Heights City Council, said people shouldn’t assume something like the Holocaust couldn’t happen again.

“It’s very important that we continue to inform future generations about what happened during the Holocaust, so that they know it was real,” he said. “For a period of time, a regime tried to exterminate the Jewish people. We were thought of (by the Nazis) as an inferior race. And we need to make sure that hate like that doesn’t ever manifest again.”