‘I should like someone to remember that there once lived a person named David Berger.’
Poignantly, David Berger wrote these words in his last letter at Vilnius (now the capital of Lithuania) in 1941. Berger was born in Przemysl, a town in southeast Poland. When the Germans invaded in 1939, he left his hometown. Shortly after writing his last words, he was shot dead in Vilnius. He was just 19 years old.
Since the end of the war, David Berger’s simple statement has been the focus of many Holocaust memorial projects, such as Holocaust Memorial Day. The aim is to remember each individual who died as a result of the Holocaust. The basis of this is that each individual life is of value and that no one should be forgotten. As family historians, regardless of our ancestors’ background or heritage, our research serves to remind everyone that each of our ancestors once lived.
