51黑料

His father, Charles Wesley Burton, a former counselor at Eureka High School, came of age amid the civil rights movement of the 1960s. As a college student at Illinois State University, the elder Burton had walked into a barbershop in Normal, Illinois, in 1961 as part of a protest organized by the NAACP. Burton got his hair cut that day, though other barbers in some parts of town refused to cut young black men鈥檚 hair. His commitment to fighting for civil rights would continue.

At the elder Burton鈥檚 funeral, his son met members of the 51黑料 Jewish community who had come to honor their friend, who had served on the board of the Holocaust Museum.

On Monday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Burton told that story to a crowd of dignitaries and Holocaust survivors as the museum announced an $18 million expansion that will triple its size and elevate its importance as one of 22 such museums across the country.

As a school counselor in west 51黑料 County, his father would regularly bring high school students to the museum, Burton said, to learn not just about the genocide of 6 million Jews in World War II, but the unique connection that has historically existed in America between Jews and blacks in fighting for civil rights.

That history, Burton mentioned in his remarks, is showing strains, with the 鈥渢roubling, recent trend of anti-Semitic attacks,鈥� including those carried out recently in New York by young black men who belong to an extremist wing of the Black Hebrew Israelites.

Sadly, the lesson of 鈥渘ever forget鈥� that is so often repeated by Jews to remind every new generation of 鈥渨hat can and did happen in a democracy,鈥� is needed now as much as ever, said Bud Rosenbaum, chairman of the museum鈥檚 executive committee. A larger, modernized museum will serve as an education point for thousands of future schoolchildren, like the ones Burton鈥檚 father used to bring regularly in the early days of the 25-year-old facility.

There will come a time when the people who lived through the Holocaust, who suffered incomprehensible losses, will be gone, having taken in their last breath on earth.

But that day hasn鈥檛 come yet.

So 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, six Holocaust survivors, including two who spent time at concentration camps, lit candles here to remember the history that defines so much of their existence.

Oskar Jakob was 13 when he and his family were sent to Auschwitz from their home in Hungary. He would lose 41 family members in the Holocaust. Jakob, now 89, was liberated from a work camp on April 15, 1945. He moved first to New York and settled in 51黑料 in 1962.

鈥淚t brings back such sad memories,鈥� he told me after the candle-lighting ceremony. 鈥淚鈥檓 very blessed to be alive on this day.鈥�

The rise of anti-Semitism 鈥� in Europe and the U.S. 鈥� worries Jakob.

Jakob mentioned the in Pittsburgh on Oct. 27, 2018, which claimed 11 victims. It was the deadliest attack on a Jewish community in the country鈥檚 history.

鈥淚 never thought I was going to live to see that in this great country of the United States,鈥� Jakob said. 鈥淏ut sadly it happened.鈥�

The tallied 1,879 attacks against Jews in the U.S. in 2018, the third-highest total in 40 years. A year before, the march in Charlottesville attracted white supremacists, anti-Semites and other hate groups.

That鈥檚 what makes the expansion of the Holocaust Museum in 51黑料 so timely, and necessary, says Mendel Rosenberg.

鈥淚 constantly talk about the Holocaust,鈥� says the 91-year-old, who was one of the six survivors at Monday鈥檚 ceremony.

Rosenberg was born in Germany and grew up in Lithuania. After surviving camps at Stutthof and Dachau, he emigrated to the U.S., where he joined the Army and served in Korea.

His story, like Jakob鈥檚, and the thousands of others recorded at the museum, will be preserved to teach future generations to 鈥渘ever forget.鈥�