The last of the generation of my family to be born in Europe & escape the Nazis just died, a group that included my Dad. She escaped by walking across Europe, age 9 or so, sleeping in barns & open fields, eating what she could find, en route to a passage from Portugal to the US.

I didn't know her very well. She was a lively and adventurous woman of potent mind and strong opinions. But her passing reminds me of the escape of my Dad and his parents, the three dozen relatives who did not make it and how close in time we still are to that horror.

What is most chilling of all, of course, is that we are not just close to those events in time. Even as the generation that saw such horrors was still alive, we've seen a resurgence in the US & Europe of the hatred, brutality & malevolent leadership that makes genocide possible.

For three-quarters of a century we said, half in defiance, half in prayer, "Never again." But now, none of us are so sure we can keep that promise, are we?