By Dignelly Torres Syracuse, N.Y. (NCC News) – About 500 people attended the afternoon reunion event Monday at Fort Ontario, Oswego Historic Site Manager, Paul Lear said.
“It’s kind of emotional,” Lear said. “Many of these people (Holocaust survivors) may not be here much longer.” Lear said it was joyful to see the refugees and their families.
In Syracuse, the 75th anniversary began with a song that was played by the headstones of Arpad Buechler and her mother Emilia Buechler in Ahavath Achim Cemetery.
Emilia and her Arpad son died the same year. Arpad in February and Emilia in June 1945.
After the Cantor finished the song, some families of other survivors put rocks on top of the headstones. Symbolically “it’s another way to say I was here,” said Lear.
Click above and listen to part of the song the Cantor sang.
The first reunion took place in October 1981. “This is probably the last one,”, Lear said. “It’s the commemorative of their time in history. They were part of something unique.” According to Lear, there are about 30 to 35 of the original 982 Holocaust survivors alive.
August 5, 1944 marked the arrival of 982 Nazi Holocaust victims during World War II. Fort Ontario Refugee Shelter was the only place that received victims. Today, Fort Ontario remains a historic state site.
