“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.” Elie Wiesel
International Holocaust Remembrance Day marks 78 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. We hold the memory of six million Jewish victims and millions of other victims of the Holocaust in our hearts.
Stories help us understand and connect between universal truths and ourselves. Today we will tell you about Ella Ostroff, a Hungarian survivor of the Holocaust, who, along with her mother, two sisters, and her brother, were deported to Auschwitz in 1944. Ella’s mother and brother were murdered in the gas chambers upon arrival. Ella and two of her sisters survived for nearly a year shuffling between Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Dachau. After liberation by American soldiers in 1945, they lived in a displaced person’s camp where they were reunited with their oldest sister. Two years later, the sisters immigrated to the United States. Ella met Herbert in 1948 in upstate New York, and they eventually married and settled in Portland, where they raised their three children. Herbert died in 2003 and Ella in 2020. In 2022 the Herbert and Ella Ostroff Endowment Fund was established at the museum for Holocaust remembrance. Ella and Herbert understood the importance of ongoing education about the Holocaust and about the mission of this museum and we state here and now and unequivocally: we remain steadfast in our commitment to honor their intent.
We also mark the death of Paul Norr, z”l on January 25, 2023. Paul served as the land use attorney for the Oregon Holocaust Memorial Coalition during the years-long legal battle over whether the City had the right to allow the Memorial to be sited in Washington Park. Paul was an excellent attorney and a true mensch. The Oregon Holocaust Memorial stands as a stark reminder of the consequences of unbridled hate and our collective responsibility to learn from the experiences of those who survived it, and, with Paul Norr in mind, of our legal right and moral obligation to maintain such open commemoration. Forever.