International Holocaust Remembrance Day: Join the conversation, recall history

candles lit in rows

Photo by Ted Eytan, courtesy of Flickr

SATURDAY, JANUARY 27: On this date in 1945, Soviet forces liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, a concentration and death camp in Poland that had claimed more than 1 million lives—and to “never forget” the events of this time in history, today is observed as International Holocaust Remembrance Day by United Nations member states.

Looking to join in the conversation? Read, discuss, post and learn more about International Holocaust Remembrance Day via social media using #HolocaustRemembrance.

This year, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum will hold a ceremony that will include remarks by David O’Sullivan, European Union ambassador to the United States, and reflections from Estelle Laughlin, who survived the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. A prayer of remembrance and a musical performance by Holocaust survivor Jacqueline Mendels Birn will also be featured during the museum’s ceremony. (Watch the ceremony live, here, on January 26 at 11 a.m. ET.)

UN HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

An international memorial day commemorating the tragedy of the Holocaust that occurred during the Second World War, International Holocaust Remembrance Day recalls the genocide and death of approximately 6 million Jews, 200,000 Romani people, 250,000 mentally and physically disabled people and 9,000 homosexual men. The United Nations General Assembly resolution 60/7 on November 1, 2005 designated the day of remembrance.

Did you know? The symbol of the Holocaust and the UN Outreach Programme consists of four elements on a solid black background: the words, “Remembrance and Beyond,” the UN symbol, a piece of barbed wire and two white roses. In the U.S. and the UK, white roses symbolize the investigation, remembrance and prevention of genocide.

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