Montreal's Jewish community remembers victims for Yom HaShoah: Holocaust Remembrance Day
On Sunday night, Jewish communities recognize Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, where six candles are lit at a ceremony at the Montreal Holocaust Museum, one for every million Jews killed during the Holocaust.
Amid a rising tide of anti-Semitism and conflict in the Middle East, one survivor from Montreal says now is the time for dialogue and understanding.
Rachel Kruger Gropper said she's filled with a sense of loss and determination as she stood beneath the eternal flame at the museum.
"Around us you see the names of all the concentration camps," she told CTV News. "Some I was connected to. Some I was not. All of them were families and children. This room is my pause and this light must not go out."
At the outset of the Second World War, Gropper's parents fled Poland, escaping Nazi persecution, only to be arrested by the Soviet Union army and sent to a slave labour camp in the Ural Mountains.
"I was born in a coal mine in Siberia," said Gropper. "And my mother was assured that there wasn't the remotest possibility that I would survive. She was determined to prove that a less than two-pound baby could survive."
The conditions were horrific, and many did not survive the mines.
Her family did, however, and came to Canada after the war.
"This country means a tremendous amount to me as I remember where we came from, and as I memorialize, never to forget, I am caught in today's news, and I can't help but feel upset, concerned," she said.
Since Oct. 7, Montreal police (SPVM) have reported 154 hate crimes and 55 incidents directed at the Jewish community.
At McGill University, the pro-Palestinian encampment has been peaceful for the most part, but earlier this week, video footage emerged of some demonstrators telling Jewish students to "go back to Europe."
For Holocaust Museum president Jacques Saada, the slogan shows a lack of understanding and compassion.
"There is a difference between a noble cause, which is the Palestinian cause and what's happening and this statement that we hear," said Saada. "The Shoah is not a theory. It's not something which we talk about in a vacuum. It is 6 million people who lost their lives, and it's not the statistics and the statistics only. It is real people with real hopes, real aspirations, real pains. It was people like you and me. And these people have been eliminated just because they were Jewish."
Now in her 80s, Gropper devotes much of her time to telling her family's story, fostering understanding through her work at the Holocaust Museum.
"I want us to be able to live together," she said. "I am not interested in hate and my only tools as an educator of a lifetime, my only tool is education."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Infant dies in ATV crash, N.S. RCMP says alcohol may be a factor
An infant has died and three others, including another child, were taken to hospital following an ATV crash in Forties, N.S., on Monday.
'Do not drive': Nissan warns Canadian drivers of explosion risk impacting 48,000 vehicles
Car manufacturer Nissan has issued a do-not-drive warning for some older vehicles equipped with Takata airbag inflators, due to the risk of explosion during a crash.
WATCH LIVE Charges against world's top golfer Scottie Scheffler dropped after arrest outside PGA Championship
Criminal charges against Scottie Scheffler have been dismissed, ending a legal saga that began with images of the world’s top male golfer being arrested and handcuffed in Louisville during the PGA Championship.
Canadians are eyeing moves to these cities for more affordable housing
Faced with elevated housing prices, half of Canadians in the country's largest cities are considering moving to places with more affordable housing.
'Scandals and secrets': On board the world's most exclusive private residential ship
It’s a floating city exclusively home to the 1 per cent, a playground for multimillionaires and billionaires that circumnavigates the world's oceans.
How Trump's hush money trial verdict could affect the 2024 election
Here is how three potential outcomes from the jury room ─ a guilty verdict, an acquittal or a hung jury ─ could affect the presidential campaign.
Tessa Virtue reveals she's expecting her first child. Here's what Canadians had to say
Canadian figure-skating icon Tessa Virtue is expecting her first child, she revealed via social media Tuesday.
An Iceland volcano starts erupting again, spewing lava into the sky
A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted Wednesday for the fifth time since December, spewing red streams of lava in the latest display of nature’s power and triggering the evacuation of the popular Blue Lagoon geothermal spa.
'Are you driving?' U.S. man with suspended licence shows up on court Zoom call while behind the wheel
A Michigan man with a suspended driver's licence didn't appear to have thought through a recent court appearance made on video, joining the Zoom call while driving.