Reflecting on the Holocaust

We are in the midst now of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. For me, it's a very personal holiday. My grandparents were both survivors; I know of their story and it has become my legacy and the lessons from it my obligation to perpetuate. What will the next generation know of the Holocaust? In what way will my son Caleb who, God-willing, will remember his great-grandfather, "connect" to the Holocaust? In what way should parents try to connect the next generation to the Holocaust?

I was reminded yesterday of a poem by Dan Pagis, that each year strikes me:

"Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway Car"
here in this carload
I am eve
with abel my son
if you see my other son
Cain son of man
tell him i (am)

The power of this p0em for me, lies in multi-layered imagery. First, of course, is the biblical reference to the first murder and the recognition that we may not have come very far in the thousands of years of human existence. Second, and most powerful for me, is the fact that this poem could be read and re-read repeatedly as if on repeat ... the cycle of anti-semitism seeing no end. To what extent is this a lesson I want Caleb--and all our children--to know and understand?