The Illinois Holocaust Museum held an intimate and emotional public gathering for Holocaust Remembrance Day May 6 in Skokie.

The event, which attracted guests from Chicagoland and beyond, was by turns hopeful and heartbreaking, with the speakers taking solace in the transformative nature of education amid the sobering history of the Holocaust.

This museum makes sure we can empower future generations with this knowledge, to ensure that we recognize the groundwork for genocide, said Chicago Public Schools CEO Rob Huberman, whose grandfather died in the Holocaust. The museum is more than just preserving history. Its a wonderful teaching tool with an emotional impact.

The program was chock full of presenters, including Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Skokie Mayor George VanDusen, Museum President Fritzie Fritzshall, and keynote speaker John Macsai, a Holocaust survivor.

Mayor VanDusen called both the day of remembrance and the museum itself a study in inhumanity in order to teach humanity. He also made sure the audience knew that the creation of the museum was close to Mayor Daleys heart.

Daley encouraged the construction of the museum, and said from the beginning that it should be in Skokie, VanDusen said.

Daley confirmed his commitment to the museum, saying that people have to speak out against lingering prejudice. He encouraged the audience to take action against groups who don Nazi uniforms and profess anti-Semitism.

He also emphasized the importance of learning about history.

You have to know your roots, he said. You have to know who you are and what happenedeven if its the darkest moment in the history of the world.

John Macsai made the abstract tangible for the audience, telling of his experiences in work camps and on the death marches. He told his story in painstaking detail, particularly when Nazi soldiers marched them across Europe without offering any food. He said his group resorted to eating clovers, turnips and snails they found in the trees.

Macsai also described a profoundly depressing moment in the marchthe whiff of the world he once knew.

I remember going past an open window and hearing the sound of silver hitting a china plate, he said. It was the sound of civilized life. I could have cried.

One of the the most affecting moments of the event required no words at allwhen Huberman read the names of audience members who had survived the Holocaust, asking them to stand up when they were called.

Huberman read dozens of names; the group was a substantial part of the audience. A number of the survivors who were named participated in a candle lighting ceremony following the presentation, along with Daley and VanDusen.

One participant, Ruth Lidawer, became overcome with emotion as she lit the candle, and shared a haunting impromptu story about her own experience in a Siberian labor camp.

When I was growing up, my mother never wanted to talk about what happened, said Annette Lidawer, Ruths daughter, after the event. Now as she gets older, she wants to speak. She has dementia and the only thing she remembers is that.

Annette Lidawer, who lives in Highland Park, said that although her mother never shared her story during her childhood, the effects of the Holocaust were palpable.

I always felt different, Annette Lidawer said. Our family had weird ideosyncrasies, like we had to eat everything on our plates, or we couldnt eat certain raw vegetables.

Annette Lidawer said the latter rule was because the prisoners, like Macsai, were forced to scrounge for food.

Other participants have been telling their families their stories for decadesbut that didnt make the event less momentous.

It touches me every time Im at an event where we really remember what happened, said Lola Nortman, a Northbrook resident who survived several concentration camps across Europe.

Nortmans daughter, Marlene Rubenstein of Glencoe, said that nowadays, its young childrenher grandchildrenwho get Nortman to talk about her experience.

Its students who have to keep the memory alive, Rubenstein said. As a family, we take our responsibilities to educate seriously.

Nona Willis Aronowitz, triblocal.com reporter