What Does It Mean to Remember Something You Never Experienced?

Jacob Dawson explores what it means to remember a history we never lived, in honour of Yom HaShoah.

Harry Olmer was just eight years old when the war began. Born in Poland, his early life was not shaped by ordinary memories of school or sport, but by fear, separation, and survival. During the Holocaust, his family was forced into a ghetto, where daily life became defined by uncertainty and danger.

As the Nazis began deporting people from the ghettos, staying meant almost certain death. Harry escaped, beginning years of hiding. He moved from place to place, relying on the courage of others and on his own resilience to survive. For years, his childhood was defined by uncertainty, not knowing if he would live to see the next day.

Harry was not just a survivor whose story I learned about. He was someone who regularly attended my synagogue. When I first heard his story at a youth service on Shabbat, it felt personal.

His story is not only about survival. It is about memory, about living with experiences that we can barely imagine unless we were there. For those of us who were not, his story becomes a mitzvah of זיכרון (zikaron), a sacred act of remembrance. We are called to remember, to bear witness, and to carry these lessons forward to future generations.

As the years pass and the number of survivors grows smaller, we are left with a difficult question. How do we remember what we never lived?

“Never again.” It is a phrase that carries the weight of history, a promise that humanity would learn from the atrocities of the Holocaust. But what does that phrase really mean today? Sadly, it is clear that the promise is far from fulfilled. Just last year, the terrorist attack at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester reminded us that antisemitism still exists on our streets. More recently, the antisemitic attack in Golders Green, where four Hatzola ambulances were burned, showed that hatred and violence remain present in our society.

These events show that “Never again” is not simply a phrase of the past, but a responsibility we must act on today. It is a wake-up call to remember and respond when hatred appears, not only in history, but in our communities. The promise of “Never again” depends on us carrying forward the lessons of those who lived through it, like Harry, and honouring their experiences. Memory is not passive. It demands engagement and reflection.

To remember is to act. One of the most powerful ways we act is through education, by sharing the stories of survivors like Harry Olmer. His story, like many others, allows us to see the Holocaust not just as a period in history, but as a lived experience. It helps us understand the true impact of hatred beyond statistics and headlines.

As the number of survivors continues to decline, the way we engage with these stories must also change. Without survivors in our rooms answering our questions, we are left with something more challenging. We are asked to remember without having witnessed, and to carry stories that are not our own. Education, then, is not only about preserving their voices. It is about making them part of our own lives.

Stories like Harry Olmer’s do not end when they are told. They continue in the way we remember them, the way we speak about them to others, and the way we act because of them. This is what it means to remember something we have not experienced. It means carrying these stories with responsibility and care. It means ensuring that when there is no one left to tell them first-hand, they do not fade into the distance and become forgotten.

In this way, “Never again” is shaped by how we respond to it. Remembering means understanding our role in challenging hatred when we see it. The stories of survivors like Harry Olmer remind us not only of the past, but of the responsibility we carry today.

So what does it mean to remember something we have never experienced? It means choosing not to let it be forgotten. It means carrying these stories forward, sharing them, and allowing them to shape the kind of society we want to live in. Through memory, we do not just look back. We move forward, ensuring that “Never again” is not something we say, but something we strive to live by.