Preface for Parents and Teachers

We have often been asked why we created Project Zachor. The question usually follows the questioner's enthusiastic statement of support. The answer can be best provided by what Simon Wiesenthal, in the last pages of his memoir, The Murderers Among Us, remembers that the SS militia enjoyed cynically admonishing the prisoners:

However this war may end, we have won the war against you; none of you will be left to bear witness, but even if someone was to survive, the world will not believe him. There will be suspicions, discussions, research by historians, but there will be no certainty, because we will destroy the evidence together with you. And even if some proof should remain and some of you survive, people will say that the events you describe are too monstrous to be believed: they will say that they are exaggerations of Allied propaganda and will believe us. We will be the ones to dictate the history of the Lagers (Nazi concentration camps, or Konzentrationslager, abbreviated Lager).

We are compelled to Zachor — to remember; our Brothers' and Sisters' blood cries demands it of us! This is the Kaddish that we offer in memory of their lives; Zachor is the bridge that belies their annihilation.

They have left their lives to us: let millions of prayers rise whenever Jews worship; let millions of candles glow against the darkness of these unfinished lives.

B'Shalom V'Zachor,

January 2026 / Tevet 5786