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
Blaine Higgs 'furious' over sexual education presentation
New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has shared his anger on social media over a presentation in at least four high schools.
This type of screen time has the worst effect on kids: experts
According to some experts, there is one type of screen time that is continuously excessive, and it's having a severe effect on our children.
Grayson Murray's parents say the two-time PGA Tour winner died of suicide
Grayson Murray's parents said Sunday their 30-year-old son took his own life, just one day after he withdrew from a PGA Tour event.
Some birds may use 'mental time travel,' study finds
Real quick — what did you have for lunch yesterday? Were you with anyone? Where were you? Can you picture the scene? The ability to remember things that happened to you in the past, especially to go back and recall little incidental details, is a hallmark of what psychologists call episodic memory — and new research indicates that it’s an ability humans may share with birds called Eurasian jays.
Trump confronts repeated boos during raucous Libertarian convention speech
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.
Driver, 18, gets $3,000 ticket, 32 demerit points after speeding on Laval boulevard
A young driver received a hefty fine from Laval police after they say he was driving nearly 100 km/h over the posted speed limit.
Indianapolis 500 delayed as strong storm forces fans to evacuate Indianapolis Motor Speedway
The start of the Indianapolis 500 was delayed as a strong storm pushed through the area Sunday, forcing Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials to evacuate about 125,000 fans who had already arrived for "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing."
Hamas rocket attack from Gaza sets off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv for the first time in months
Hamas fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza that set off air raid sirens as far away as Tel Aviv for the first time in months on Sunday in a show of resilience more than seven months into Israel's massive air, sea and ground offensive.
At least 13 dead in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas after severe weather roars across region
Powerful storms killed at least 13 people and left a wide trail of destruction Sunday across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas after obliterating homes and destroying a truck stop where dozens sought shelter in a restroom during the latest deadly weather to strike the central U.S.