Elul is fast approaching and Porto's Holocaust museum will as usual operate under the motto of the Selichot, knowing the victims fought to maintain their humanity through spiritual resistance. Keeping track of the Hebrew calendar in the ghettos and concentration camps was a major act of defiance against Nazi efforts to erase Jewish identity.
Artifacts on display will include a clandestine, hand-written calendar where prisoners painstakingly calculated the arrival of Elul to prepare for the Days of Awe. The month of Elul holds profound importance for Holocaust museums and remembrance centers because it serves as the ultimate period of soul-searching (cheshbon hanefesh), historical reflection, and spiritual resistance in the Jewish calendar.
As the final month preceding the High Holidays (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), Elul allowed victims to secretly recite Selichot (prayers for forgiveness) and find ways to blow a makeshift shofar, asserting their spiritual freedom under absolute oppression. The core mission of any Holocaust museum is Zachor (Remember). The month of Elul amplifies this educational and commemorative mission.
The Holocaust museum of Porto utilizes the reflective "Elul energy" to shift public programming from purely historical timelines to deeper ethical questions about human nature, complacency, and moral responsibility.
