Wheeling man tells his Holocaust story at Beth Judea in Long Grove

The Holocaust story is not just one of loss. It also contains inspiring stories of perseverance and the promise of hope. That was amply demonstrated at Sunday’s Yom HaShoah (Day of Remembrance) ceremony at Congregation Beth Judea in Long Grove.

There were tears during the candle lighting ceremony, as guests remembered the millions of Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis and their accomplices.

But there was a living example of perseverance in the person of Wheeling resident Joe Koek. And there was also hope with the singing of Hatikvah, the national anthem of Israel.

Rabbi Howard Lifshitz reflected on the meaning of the day, saying, “It is through our act of collective remembrance that we honor the memory of those who have no final resting place, those who have no real tombstone to mark their grave and enshrine their names.”

But he also said, “We … affirm that we will do our best to keep the Jewish faith and the Jewish people strong and viable and creative, that we will attempt to spread the message of hope and of goodness and of righteousness throughout the world. “

In Nazi Europe, all Jews, no matter what level their faith had reached, were painted with one broad brush by their oppressors.

“In the eyes of the Nazis, you were simply a Jew. And for those who ruled the kingdom of death, each was an individual to be extinguished,” he said.

But for the Jewish people, each death was an irreplaceable loss. In having Koek speak, Lifshitz said the congregation is fulfilling a sacred responsibility to carry the story forward for future generations.

Koek was one of the children hidden by the Dutch underground in World War II. He was 10 in 1940, when Germany invaded Holland, a neutral country, forcing the ruling family to relocate to England.

Koek’s parents were eventually exterminated, but he and his two sisters were saved by the Dutch underground. They initially were hidden in a school. He said he learned how to knit from one of his sisters, because it was an activity he could do while remaining quiet.

He and his sisters were eventually separated, with Koek eventually living on a farm.

After being liberated, he was reunited with his sisters. One of them, after moving to Winnetka, helped him relocate to the United States in 1956.

“You may ask me, ‘Why do I put myself through the difficulty of telling this story?’” said Koek, a member of the Illinois Holocaust Museum Speakers Bureau who is writing a children’s book about his story. “If I don’t tell my story, who will? And if I don’t do it now, when?”