A Holocaust Remembrance Day event happened Sunday, May 1, at Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church in Peachtree City.
For the last 14 years, Congregation Bna’i Israel of Fayetteville and Christ Our Shepherd have joined together in service to remember the Holocaust, each year alternating venues. This year’s service on Sunday, May 1, consisted of prayers and candle lighting, songs and poems. Both congregations participated.
Rabbi Rick Harkavy, Cantor Susan Burden, Pastor Mirian Beecher and Pastor Fritz Wiese participated as well as several members of both houses of prayer, sharing thoughts, inspirational poems and important messages.
The highlight of the service was the showing of a short documentary called “Fate Did Not Let Me Go.” The true story, captured on film, is about a farewell letter that Valli Ollendorff wrote to her only surviving son in the United States from the Thereseinstadt concentration camp.
This mother’s letter of love and hope arrived mysteriously from South America in 1985 when her son was 79 years old. Coming from a family of doctors, her son had become a top eye surgeon in New York City with many achievements. Upon his death, the family released the letter.
In December, 2007, The Yad Vashem Center in Israel debuted the documentary with Ollendorff family members present.
