3 minute read
Letter From the Editor
This month, I want to focus on an observance that doesn’t get the spotlight other special days get — at least, I haven’t ever heard much about it. April 18 is Holocaust Remembrance Day, a 24-hour period when we should remember the atrocities inflicted on the Jews by Adolf Hitler’s regime during World War II and pray nothing like that ever happens again.
I’m acquainted enough with the Holocaust to know, without a doubt, that it happened. How anyone can call it a myth, hoax or exaggeration is beyond my comprehension. My first exposure to it was in my sixth-grade social studies class, when one of our teachers spoke to us about her relatives going through it. Occurring five decades ago, I don’t remember the details of her story, but I do remember it making a big impression on me.
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Several years ago, I visited Kennesaw State University’s Museum of History and Holocaust Education, which has grown significantly since then. Seeing the photos and reading the stories made me wonder how a group of people could be so barbaric toward another group of people, especially when that group had done nothing to deserve such treatment.
I saw for myself what I had read and learned about when I visited the Dachau concentration camp, the first one built by the Nazis, in Germany in
2005. I can tell you it wasn’t a tourist attraction constructed just to perpetrate some big hoax. I saw the crematoriums — something I will never forget — and the barracks where the prisoners were forced to live, if you could call it that. Nothing will ever convince me any of that was for “show.”
My most recent experience with the Holocaust came at my last newspaper job. I interviewed a woman whose grandfather had risked his life to help Jews escape from Europe using forged South American passports. The story ended up being seen by a woman in Vermont who realized her grandfather had been saved from extermination by this woman’s grandfather. The two women eventually met and did a joint presentation about their grandfathers at a local college. It was heartwarming to see something good come out of this tragedy.
Speaking of good things, we have several articles in this issue that celebrate April as National Volunteer Month. Check out Pages 16-19 for an update on how the nonprofits featured in our Helping Hands spread in November and December were helped. Also, read about Acworth’s Horizon League for people with special needs, as well as its annual fundraising gala, on Pages 22-24.
April also is National Pickleball Month, so find out all about the country’s fastestgrowing sport on Pages 12-13.
Happy reading!
America’s Community Magazine
Volume 7, Issue 8
PUBLISHER
Aroundabout Local Media, Inc. www.aroundaboutlocalmedia.com
VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES
Jennifer Coleman | 470-263-8414 jen@aroundaboutmagazines.com
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COPY EDITORS
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Aroundabout Local Media, Inc. publishes five separate hyperlocal magazines serving the communities of Canton, Woodstock, Towne Lake, Acworth and Kennesaw. Approximately 16,000 free copies are distributed monthly in each community, through direct bulk mail and first class mail; approximately 500 copies are available in magazine racks placed around each community.
Around Acworth welcomes your comments, stories, and advertisements. Editorial deadline is the first and advertising deadline is the fifth of the previous month. Subscriptions are available for $24 per year. Send check or money order to: Around Acworth, 1025 Rose Creek Drive, PMB 380, Suite 620, Woodstock, GA 30189. The viewpoints of the advertisers, writers and other submissions do not necessarily reflect those of the editor/publisher. And the publisher makes no claims to the validity of any opinions expressed by charitable, business or civic organizations mentioned, or statements made within the editorial content. The cover and inside related article, and other editorial-type submissions labeled SPONSORED CONTENT, are paid content. The publisher neither guarantees nor supports any product or service mentioned in this magazine, nor does it guarantee any assertions made by the manufacturers or providers of such products or services, or claims regarding the status of such businesses.
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