Monday, April 8 is Holocaust Remembrance Day around the world. It marks the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. A community event in Greensboro this weekend will pay tribute to the estimated 11-million people killed during this turbulent time in history.
The Holocaust began in 1933 when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany and ended in 1945 when the Nazis were defeated by the Allied powers during World War II. During that time, six million Jews were murdered by the Nazi regime and its collaborators, including more than one million children.
Memorials and programs are taking place in Jewish communities this weekend to honor the victims of the Holocaust and to reflect on the story behind the mass genocide.
Temple Emanuel in Greensboro will hold a community event on Sunday. Rabbi Andy Koren says during the event, a Holocaust survivor will share his story.
“This year, we have a man named Morris Glass. Glass was 11 years-old when the Nazis came to his town in Poland and his life changed profoundly at the time. He is a survivor of a number of the camps. The story that will be told is that he had 42 known relatives when he was an 11 year-old and only three of his 42 relatives survived. The rest were executed or killed,” says Rabbi Koren.
Koren says a candle lighting ceremony with Holocaust survivors from the Triad and their family members will take place at the Temple before the event.
He says Jewish leaders and community members are working together to educate youth about the Holocaust. More than two dozen teens from the Greensboro area are in Poland this week to learn more about the history behind the oppressive efforts. They will also spend a week in Israel. Koren says education is key to making sure something like this never happens again.
“They learn about Jewish history in Europe, they visit some of the deaths camps. They pay tribute to the six million Jewish people murdered on Holocaust Remembrance Day by doing a silent march from the Auschwitz One facility to the Birkenau facility,” says Koren.
Greensboro's Community commemoration of the Holocaust will take place Sunday, April 7 at 7:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.