Obama expresses solidarity with Jews, American honored as Righteous Among the Nations

Amid signs of growing anti-Semitism, both in the US and especially in Europe, President Obama declares he too is Jew. Obama was speaking at an event at the Israeli embassy in Washington honoring 4 Righteous Among the Nations recipients, those who selflessly helped save Jews during World War II.

Among them was former American prisoner of war Army Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds. One of the highest ranking American officers at a German POW camp, Edmonds refused to comply with German demands to single out Jewish American soldiers. Instead Edmonds replied "We are all Jews here", and the German commander relented, sparing the lives of about 200  Jewish soldiers interred at camp Stalag IX A.

The New England Holocaust Memorial

The New England Holocaust Memorial is located in Carmen Park, on Boston's Freedom Trail. It is one of the more interactive Holocaust tributes in the US, and its' design is rich in symbolism.


Six glass towers rise from the memorial. Six million numbers are etched in the glass, representing the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust.

Each tower represents one of the major Nazi extermination camps: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka.

Visitors pass through the towers on a black granite path. A steel grate covers a six foot deep chamber at the base of each tower. Smoke rises from charred embers at the bottom of these pits, evoking thoughts of the gas chambers used in the camps.