Yom Hashoah: Holocaust Remembrance Day

Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom Hashoah, will be on Monday, April 8th this year.  To remember those whose lives were lost and in an effort to never forget the tragic events that took place, many temples, schools, and organizations will be holding Holocaust Remembrance Day programs that are open to the community.  Please see below for a list of programs in the area.

The list will continue to be updated as more information becomes available.  If you have an event that you would like added to this list, please let us know!  Email ilanak@wsherc.org.

Teaching materials for Holocaust Remembrance Day - click here

"In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer"
Jeannie Smith, daughter of Irene Gut Opdyke, Holocaust Rescuer and author of In My Hands:Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

Jeannie Smith will be speaking at both:

• Congregation Kol Shalom, 9810 Miller Road NE, Bainbridge Island (April 4, 7:30pm) and
• Congregation Kol Ami, 16530 Avondale Rd Ne, Woodinville (April 5, 7:30pm)

Co-sponsored by the Holocaust Center.  Jeannie Smith is the daughter of Irene Gut Opdyke, Holocaust rescuer and author of In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer.  During World War II, Ms. Opdyke rescued Jewish families in Holland, risking the lives of herself and her family in the process.  Later recognized by the State of Israel, the US Holocaust Commission, and others, Ms. Opdyke died in 2003.  During her sessions at Congregation Kol Ami (Woodinville) and Congregation Kol Shalom (Bainbridge Island), Ms. Smtih will share the story of her mother's remarkable life.  For more information, contact Janice Hill (Kol Shalom): (206) 842-9010 or Sherri Feldman (Kol Ami): (425) 844-1604.

Kol HaNeshamah, Seattle
April 6, 9:30am
The KHN community will come together for a special educational program, created by member Rachel Smith-Mosel.  Pre-K to 2nd graders will experience Tot Shabbat followed by hands-on activities focusing on mitzvot and kindness.  3rd-7th graders and adults will study together, beginning with a video and discussion entitled, "What Would You Do?," and continuing with hands-on activities.  We will conclude the day with an abbreviated Shabbat morning service, followed by Kiddush and Motzi.

Temple Beth Or, Everett
April 7, 7:30pm
"Yom HaShoah Reader's Theater Commemoration." Join us for a special Reader's Theater as we share the stories of Jewish Partisans and the armed Jewish resistance.  A discussion will follow as well as prayers and poetry as we remember all those who lost their lives in the Holocaust. Led by Rabbi Jessica Marshall.  For more information, contact Rabbi Jessica Marshall: rabbimarshall@gmail.com

Eagle Harbor Congregational Church, Bainbridge Island
April 8, 3-5pm 
"Holocaust Remembrance Day."  Our reflections will include song and sharing of stories. Address: 105 Winslow Way (in the parking lot). For more information, contact Lorna Jean Giger: ljgiger@mindspring.com

Olympic College, Bremerton, BSC Building
April 8, 11:30am - 1pm
Screening of "With My Own Eyes: Holocaust. Genocide. Today." Produced by the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center, followed by a presentation from a Holocaust Surivor.  For more information, please email Charlyn Garcia: cgarcia@olympic.edu

Seattle University
April 9, 7:00pm.
Chapel of St. Ignatius, Seattle University campus.  For more information, contact Jan Cherry: (206) 296-2383

Bet Chaverim and Saltwater Unitarian Universalist congregations, Des Moines
April 21, 10:30 am
The program will be led by Rabbi Rick Harkavy, and Rev. Dr. James Kubal-Komoto. Address: 24701 14th Pl S, Des Moines. For more information, contact Nancy Blase: nblase@comcast.net or (206) 577-0403

South Seattle Community College, OLYMPIC Building Theater, Room 120
April 24, 11:00-1:00 pm
Co-sponsored by the Holocaust Center. Screening of "The Last Survivor" followed by a Q&A.
For more information, contact the Cultural Center: (206) 934-7950 or Office of Diversity and Retention: (206) 924-6455

Lecture and Teacher Seminar at the Museum of Flight

Last week, the Museum of Flight hosted a public lecture and a teacher seminar on teaching about the Holocaust.  Thank you to everyone who was able to attend!

The lecture, by Bob Herschkowitz, discussed the question of why the Allies didn't bomb Auschwitz.  The lecture was given as an International Holocaust Remembrance Day Program.  This day, January 27th, was designated by the United Nations and marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945.

The teacher seminar included topics such as: "Rise of the Nazi Party and the National Socialist Government," "Photo Analysis: Looking at Victims, Perpetrators, Bystanders, and Collaborators," "Rescue and Resistance," and "An Introduction to Genocide."  These discussions were led by Stephen Pagaard, Branda Anderson, Josephine Cripps, and Nick Coddington.

For more pictures, check out our facebook page!

Thank you to our new sponsor!

Thank you Mills Meyers Swartling Attorneys for sponsoring the Holocaust Center's community program and teacher training on January 17th and 18th at the Museum of Flight!

International Holocaust Remembrance Day Program*
The Bombing of Auschwitz
January 17, 2013  |  6:30pm - 8:30pm  |  Museum of Flight, Seattle
Free and open to the public.  RSVP

Why didn't the Allies bomb Auschwitz? Robert Herschkowitz, historian, Boeing engineer, retired Naval Commander, and Holocaust survivor, will discuss one of the most debated questions of World War II.  Sponsored by the Holocaust Center and the Museum of Flight. RSVP

*In 2005, the United Nations designated January 27th - the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945 - as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the spring the world also commemorates the Holocaust with Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom Hashoah in Hebrew. This year Holocaust Remembrance Day falls on April 8, 2013.

 

Creating Change: Teaching about the Holocaust & Genocide
January 18, 2013  |  8:00am - 4:00pm  |  Museum of Flight, Seattle

Sessions include: an overview of the Holocaust;  analyzing photographs: perpetrators, bystanders, victims, and upstanders;  rescue and resistance; an introduction to genocide.  Participants will also have the opportunity to take a docent-led tour of the Museum of Flight's Personal Courage wing (which highlights World War II).   $20 Registration fee - lunch and clock hours included. Presented in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, in partnership with the Museum of Flight.  

Register Now  |  Flyer

Everett Herald - Holocaust Survivors at Everett Community College

Holocaust survivors talk at EvCC

By Muatasim Qazi, Herald Writer

EVERETT -- Some in Amsterdam watched helplessly as Nazis arrested their neighbors and hauled them away to concentration camps. Others were indifferent, peeping from doors of their homes.

Klaas and Roefina Post lived on a small farm in a northern Dutch village called Makkinga. They knew all was not right. Dutch Jews were being killed mercilessly. They couldn't save everyone, but they knew they had to try.

The year was 1940, and spring had already started to give in to summer at a time when most of Europe was under Nazi aggression. Dutch forces had capitulated to the Nazis who prowled the streets of Amsterdam dressed in green uniforms and rounding up the country's Jews. ...Read full article.

Holocaust Survivor Forum at Everett Community College

Holocaust Survivor Forum Starts April 13 at Everett Community College

Forum Schedule and Details

With Everett Community College's 12th Holocaust Survivors forums scheduled to start April 13, founder and EvCC humanities instructor Joyce Walker shared why she started the forums and what she hopes students will learn.

In Spring 2000, Walker started the Humanities 150D class, Surviving the Holocaust, and she's taught it every year since. As director of EvCC's Humanities Center, she started the Holocaust forums at the same time as part of the class and has opened the forums to the campus and local community each year.

Walker has long been interested, both professionally and personally, in the history of the Holocaust.

"Stays in Germany in both high school and college caused me to wonder how such a great culture could fall so low in the Holocaust - from the apex to nadir of human civilization," said Walker, who said her Ph.D. in comparative literature includes a major focus on German language and literature.

Walker's class attempts to answer questions like "Why did the Nazis kill?" and "How did people survive such dehumanization?"

"My hope is that by studying the Holocaust, students will resolve to stand up for others in the face of hate speech and hateful acts," she said.

The Holocaust forums start April 13 with Survivor Fred H. Taucher's story. His father was seized during Kristallnacht, and his family was hidden by a high-ranking Nazi Party member until he was arrested and sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Taucher will speak from 12:20-1:50 p.m. in Baker Hall 120.

The Holocaust Center is proud to have worked with Joyce Walker and Everett Community College for many years, providing speakers and professional development opportunities.


About the photo above:
Instructor Joyce Walker, founder of EvCC's Holocaust Forums, examines notes taken Jan. 20, 1942 at the Wannsee Conference, when top German Nazi officials formally announced the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question," the decision to deport and murder the Jews of Europe. The minutes of that meeting, known as the Wannsee Protocol, are preserved in the room where the meeting took place near Berlin, now a Holocaust museum. Walker travelled to Berlin March 17-26 with study abroad students from Fullerton College, a community college in California, at the invitation of her brother, Western Civilization and German professor John Walker. Joyce Walker lectured the Fullerton students on the Holocaust during the trip.

Holocaust Survivor Meets with Kent Students

Holocaust survivor Magda Schaloum meets with Kent students, shares her experiences

By LAURA PIERCE
Kent Reporter Editor
Feb 02 2011

To those who have ever doubted there was a Holocaust, Magda Schaloum has news for them.

It happened.

Every terror, every faded photograph, every recollection whispered in a tear-roughened voice.
“Unfortunately, even today there are people who say the Holocaust never happened,” said Schaloum, now in her 80s, but buoyant with life.

To describe those years of dehumanizing treatment and fear is her way to countering the lies that the Holocaust never was.

“I think it is my obligation,” she told the gymnasium of students and staff at Meridian Middle School.

Schaloum, who survived the Nazis and went on to marry and raise a family with a fellow death-camp survivor, is a speaker with the Washington State Holocaust Resource Center, a Seattle-based organization dedicated to assisting educators in teaching about the holocaust, and in connecting local survivors to speak publicly about their experiences.

Schaloum was present at the request of Meridian teacher Debbie Carlson. She spoke Jan. 27, which is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Her presentation that day also was a key part of studies for Meridian’s eighth-graders, who are learning about the Holocaust in class. Read full article.

Magda S., Holocaust Survivor, at Meridian Middle School

Meridian Middle School Honors International Holocaust Remembrance Day

In education, studying primary source documents is often a valuable tool. Meridian’s eighth-graders had an opportunity to hear from the ultimate primary source, a living witness to the Holocaust, as part of their language arts literature study. Mrs. Magda Schaloum, an eighty-eight year old Hungarian survivor of the Holocaust spoke to students sharing her story of deportation from her Hungarian village, life in Auschwitz and the Plaszow work camp in Poland, a weapons factory in Germany, and finally liberation from Muhldorf, another concentration camp in Germany at the end of World War II.

January 27th marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp, in 1945. Listening to Mrs. Schaloum share her survival story was a powerful way for the students to honor the memories of the more than 6,000,000 Jewish people, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the mentally and physically handicapped, and homosexuals who lost their lives under the Nazi regime from 1933-1945.

Students honored Mrs. Schaloum with flowers and their undivided attention as she told of her moving experiences losing her father, mother, and brother. She told of her personal humiliation, brutal beatings, starvation diet, deprivation, and fear under the horrors of the Nazis. On the tender and sweet side, she shared about the meeting of her husband, a Greek Holocaust survivor, in a displaced persons camp shortly after the end of the war. Mrs. Schaloum began telling her survival story about twenty years ago when many were denying the Holocaust altogether. She knew she had to speak out and make sure the world never forgets.

At the closing of her visit to Meridian Middle School, Mrs. Schaloum was in tears as she said good-bye to the students and shared how much she had been blessed by them as an audience with their gifts of flowers and honor of her. She told the students she had never been treated so well and felt so loved in all of her years of visiting schools. She closed telling them she loved them all and challenged them to never let anyone put them down or allow them to believe they were not valuable and important.

Meridian eighth-graders in Miss Do’s and Mrs. Carlson’s classes have been doing a literature study of the Holocaust in preparation for reading The Diary of Anne Frank, a piece of literature commonly read by eighth-graders nationally. They have been reading about the survivors, rescuers, and resistors involved in life in the Jewish ghettos, concentration camps, and how many were hidden and protected from the Nazi atrocities. Both teachers share a passion for encouraging students to become contributing citizens of the world, honoring and valuing all human life. Studying the Holocaust is a way to learn from the past, honor those whose lives were stolen from them, and look to the future with eyes of tolerance and acceptance. Students are challenged to consider and make personal commitments to change patterns of bullying, harassment, and hatred of other human beings.

The Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center provides teaching trunks, with many primary source materials, literature units, posters, and other resources for teaching the Holocaust and making the link to the present with anti-bullying campaigns and the prevention of future genocides. Meridian Middle School has adopted their theme of “Change Begins with Me” with a huge, beautiful new wall hanging in the eighth grade pod, created by Mr. Bogle. The WSHERC also maintains a list of local Holocaust survivors who are willing to visit schools and other groups to share their own personal stories. Magda Schaloum is part of this local speakers bureau.

January 27 - International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Help us to collect 2600 signatures to represent the family members of local Holocaust survivors who were murdered in the Holocaust.

SIGN NOW!

Click the link above to add your name in remembrance.

Please consider sharing this link with others. Thank you!

More about International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Last week the Holocaust Center hosted members of the Equal Opportunity Committee at Fort Lewis interested in learning about the services the center provides. They took a brief tour of the Center, looking at artifacts and learning about our mission. They also got an overview of programs and resources the Center offers such as teaching trunks, access to the Holocaust Center's library, and more!

Fort Lewis recently held a Holocaust Remembrance Day program on base, featuring one of the Center's Speakers Bureau members, Leo H.

Holocaust Survivor, Magda S., Speaks at Seattle University

Holocaust survivor recounts her life during WWII
Magda Shaloum endured Auschwitz and Muhldorf, meeting her husband shortly after

Seattle University Spectator By Richard Kaiser
Published: Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Photo: Candace Shankel The Spectator

Magda Shaloum was joined by her son Jack to speak in Pigott auditorium. Shaloum is a member of the Speaker’s Bureau of the Washington State Holocaust Resource Center.

With support from her son and cane, Magda Shaloum makes her way up the stage and the spotlight settles on her. She settles into her seat, she adjusts her sleeve buttons and pulls her skirt closer to her feet. She looks down, then forward to an eager au- dience as she begins to tell her story.

Shaloum is a Holocaust survivor who came to Seattle University on behalf of the university’s Jewish Student Union (JSU) April 21 in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day earlier this month. Magda shared her experiences from life in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Muhldorf, a slave labor camp in Bavaria, Germany... Read full article

Photos from the Holocaust Remembrance Day Program

View photos from the annual Yom Hashoah: Holocaust Remembrance Day program on the Center's Facebook page.

Program was sponsored by the Holocaust Center and the Stroum Jewish Community Center. Thanks to the following for additional support: Claims Conference, Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, and the many volunteers who helped to make the program run smoothly. Thank you also to Leslie Rubenstein at the SJCC for taking many of these photos.

Soldier who liberates Buchenwald concentration camp speaks at Madigan Army Medical Center

World War II Soldier reflects on liberating concentration camp during Holocaust remembrance ceremony

By Julie Calohan, Madigan Healthcare System Strategic Communication Office

Photo by Bryan Kopp.

MADIGAN ARMY MEDICAL CENTER, Wash. -- For 65 years, Leo Hymas has been haunted by what he witnessed just outside of the German town of Weimar during World War II.

In his short military career of 11 months, Hymas had already lost his best friend in combat and disobeyed orders to kill two German prisoners of war, but discovering the Buchenwald concentration camp was something Hymas wasn't prepared to find.

Engaging in a firefight with German soldiers guarding the camp, Hymas and three other machine-gunners blew through the razor-wire fence with explosives, and captured or killed all of the guards.

Buchenwald became the first concentration camp discovered by American Soldiers, and Hymas, then 19 years old, was dubbed "Leo the Liberator."

But there are images and memories from that day which will never fade from his mind. "Buchenwald concentration camp was a place where people were literally worked to death," Hymas said.

"I've seen the ovens where the bodies were burned and I've seen the thousands of people who were treated so inhumanely." Hymas, now 84, shared his story as part of Madigan Army Medical Center's observance of the Holocaust Days of Remembrance, which takes place from April 11 to 18.

The program also included a traditional folktale by Dr. Julie Kinn, a research psychologist with the National Center for Telehealth and Technology located on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and a Prayer for Peace by Dr. Karen Fitzgerald, chief of Madigan's Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics department.

Hymas spoke at Madigan on the 65th anniversary of finding Buchenwald, and brought along mementos of his experience fighting in the European Theater, including an original Nazi party flag, which he seized from Gestapo Headquarters in Dusseldorf, Germany.

During the observance's opening remarks, Madigan Commander Col. Jerry Penner III shared his thoughts about the liberation of the concentration camps.

"During World War II, the United States put 10 million men under arms," Penner said. "I can only imagine what it must have felt like to be one of those very select few Soldiers walking into one of these camps in Buchenwald, Dachau and others. It boggles the mind."

The day after Buchenwald was liberated, the war ended.

In the following days, the camp was visited by Gen. Omar Bradley, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Gen. George S. Patton, who, according to Hymas, became physically ill at the sight of the emaciated prisoners and hundreds of dead bodies.

"General Eisenhower issued a statement to the world about what we had found there," Hymas said. "And I got to go home, where there was no one shooting at me."

Hymas, a resident of Whidbey Island, Wash., and a member of the speaker's bureau for the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center, shares his wartime experience as a way to come to peace with his memories.

"I was blessed to help free many oppressed people," Hymas said. "What tiny little bit I did to help overcome that terrible, awful wickedness, as difficult as it was, was the best thing I have ever done in my life.

Watch a short documentary biography of Leo Hymas on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2oNoT0MPlk

Opting In vs. Opting Out

"Opting In" vs. "Opting Out" - The Holocaust Center's Director of Education, Ilana Cone Kennedy, responds to apathy towards the Holocaust and genocide in her article "Opting In." In the "Opinions" section in the JT News.

Click here to find both articles.

Opting in
Ilana Cone Kennedy
Special to JTNews


Why it’s important to humanize and bring awareness of the Holocaust and all genocides

I work at a Holocaust Center. My daily language consists of the most obscene of numbers, concentration camps, death, suffering, and incredible personal miracles.

I am just about to complete my seventh year as the director of education. When I tell people where I work, I am often met with looks of pity or silence, and then a change of subject. “Isn’t that depressing?” is the most frequent question I receive.

Until recently, I would answer that I am inspired daily by the educators with whom I work. The teachers in our schools who teach this subject — a subject that is not required or mandated — are creative, insightful, and motivated. Seven years later I am only more impressed by their efforts and determination.

However, my answer to the question has changed. The gravity of the Holocaust — of any and all genocides — is severe. The depth of human suffering is beyond description. This tragedy did not end in 1945, but continues in the survivors’ memories, in their children, and in new generations of survivors of more recent genocides. As I type this, there are at least four places in the world on the brink of genocide. No one should suffer so extremely at the hands of another person or group of people. No one.

It’s easier for us to turn the other way, to bury ourselves in our own lives, to glance over the headlines without associating the individuals involved. It is easier because we have no explanation for innocent people being persecuted and suffering so greatly — we know it is unjust, we recognize the absurdity of it all, and this is why we can hardly bear to face it.

I am the mother of two young children. When they were born, as everyone warned me it would, my view of the world changed. I think I was always sensitive to people’s feelings, fears, and to the pain and hurt a person experiences at being rejected, put down, disappointed. After having children of my own, the stories of parents hiding their kids, sending them to safety, holding on to them — all of it was too personal.

The fear experienced by children, parents, grandparents, the grappling with the unknown, the efforts to save loved ones, and even the pursuit of joy that occurred in the worst of conditions — all of this becomes part of the world we live in. We wish this was history, but in fact, people around the world continue these experiences on a daily basis.

No, depressing is not the word I would use. Overwhelming, really, is more like it.I love my job. Many people have heard me say it. I work with the most incredible people — survivors, educators, and a staff of the most driven, intelligent, passionate people.

But, there are days I go home and feel overwhelmed by the suffering, pain, hatred, and ignorance that exists in this world. What can I, one person, do? Sometimes I feel hopeless. Still, I like to think that maybe I’m making a microscopic dent. I’m idealistic, I suppose. I try to live honestly by my values, to practice the things that I tell others Holocaust education imparts: To stand up to intolerance, recognize the dangers of stereotyping, be respectful of each other’s differences, know that your words and actions affect those around you…because really, if I can’t do it, how can I expect anyone else to? All I can do is to try to work toward these lofty ideals and hope that maybe others will find it worthwhile to do so too.

On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 11, I am thankful to the survivors for sharing their experiences and for trusting their listeners with their stories. I am thankful to all of those who have made an effort to remember, search for, and hear the stories of those that did not survive. On this day, we must not simply remember, we must feel, and we must act.

Read this article and/or another viewpoint "Opting Out" - click here.

Stories of Local Survivors: Frieda S.

In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Week, we will be posting a links to stories of local (Washington State) Holocaust survivors.


Frieda S.


Frieda is standing just to the left of the instructor in the middle of the photo. She is wearing a white shirt.

Why are corners of this photo cut out? Click here to find out about this photo.

~ ~ ~

In 1933, the Nazi party was elected in Germany and Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor. Hitler and the Nazi party quickly put into practice their belief that Germans were “racially superior.” Jewish people were not only defined as “inferior,” but became the primary target for Nazi hatred.

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. By the end of that same year, Nazi forces occupied Czechoslovakia. For the next 5 years, Nazi forces occupied country after country in Europe.

In 1943, at the age of 14, Frieda was deported to Theresienstadt, a concentration camp in her native country of Czechoslovakia, because she was a “mischling” – half Jewish. Frieda’s mother was not Jewish, but her father was. Against the odds, Frieda survived the Holocaust in Theresienstadt.


"After the war people told me I was lucky to have been sent to Theresienstadt. It was the model camp. Intellectuals, artists and individuals who might someday provide something to the Reich were sent to Theresienstadt. I was sent to Theresienstadt because I was a “Mischling” (half Jewish). I didn’t feel lucky..." Read more of Frieda's story.





Frieda is a member of the Holocaust Center's speakers bureau.

YOU are invited...

Yom Hashoah
Holocaust Remembrance Day—Community Commemoration
Sunday, April 11, 2010
1:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Stroum Jewish Community Center,

3801 East Mercer Way, Mercer Island

From Generation to Generation

L'Dor V'Dor

1:00 - Moments of Reflection and Reading of the Names
Remember those who perished at the Holocaust Memorial.

1:30 - Kaddish
Event Emcee: Marcie Sillman, KUOW
Join us inside the SJCC to say Kaddish and listen to musical selections from Temple Beth Am’s choir.

2:00 - “How the past leads us forward”
A panel of children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors.

2:45 - “Voices of Hope”
An inspiring play focusing on the Holocaust by SJCC Center Stage, directed by Daniel Alpern.

Also available during the day:
Holocaust Center resources of interest to continuing generations.
Be a Part of the Butterfly Project! Make butterflies in memory of the children of the Holocaust. The butterflies will be sent to the Theresienstadt Museum in the Czech Republic.

Free and open to the public. NO RSVP required. Please call the Holocaust Center at 206-774-2201 or email info@wsherc.org for more information.

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

The United Nations General Assembly Designated January 27th an annual international day of commemoration to honor Holocaust victims. January 27th is the day associated with the liberation of Auschwitz.

To the thousands of survivors who were on the death march out of Auschwitz, this is a controversial day.

Israel and the United States continue to observe Holocaust Remembrance Day on the date assigned on the Hebrew calendar, the 27th of Nissan. (This year, that is April 11, 2010.) Nonetheless, the UN's move is momentous as it urges Member States to develop educational programs to instill the memory of the tragedy in future generations to prevent genocide from occurring again...read UN document.

What about Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) in April?

After the horrors of the Holocaust, Jews wanted a day to memorialize this tragedy. But what day? For two years, the date was debated. Finally, in 1950, compromises and bargaining began. The 27th of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar,* was chosen. This date falls beyond Passover but within the time span of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

On April 12, 1951, the Knesset (Israel's parliament) proclaimed Yom Hashoah U'Mered HaGetaot (Holocaust and Ghetto Revolt Remembrance Day) to be the 27th of Nisan. The name was later simplified to Yom Hashoah. This year Holocaust Remembrance Day is on April 11, 2010.

Each year the Holocaust Center organizes the Yom Hashoah: Holocaust Remembrance Day Community Program. This year the program will be on April 11, 2010 at the Stroum Jewish Community Center, Mercer Island. This year's program will include: musical and theatrical performances, a display of student artwork, a memorial service, and a panel of children of Holocaust survivors sharing thoughts and experiences. More information available soon at www.wsherc.org/programs. Free and open to the public.

*The Hebrew calendar is based on the lunar cycle. The months are shorter than those on the solar calendar (the calendar we commonly use), so a date on the Hebrew calendar does not consistently match up with a day on the solar calendar. For example, the 27th of Nisan is not always April 11. In 2011, Yom Hashoah (the 27th of Nisan) fall on May 1.

What does the word Holocaust mean?

The term Holocaust originally meant a sacrifice that was totally burned by fire. The Hebrew word Shoah, which means "catastrophe" or "destruction," is also used to refer to the Holocaust.

More information and teaching materials for Holocaust Remembrance: http://www.wsherc.org/teaching/commemoration/intro.aspx


Stories of local Holocaust survivors:
http://www.wsherc.org/center/survivorstories/survivorstories.aspx


Holocaust Writing and Art Contest:
http://www.wsherc.org/writingcontest/contest.aspx

Photo by Nicole Kahn. Holocaust Memorial on Mercer Island.

President Obama's Days of Remembrance Address

Yom Hashoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day
National Ceremony in Capitol Rotunda, April 23


View President Obama's Days of Remembrance Address
View the transcript of the President's remarks

Coming soon - transcript of the powerful speech given by Elie Wiesel.