Holocaust Remembrance Day

From USA Today:
"Auschwitz survivors mark liberation anniversary"

Auschwitz survivors and Israeli officials on Monday marked 69 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camp in a ceremony that included a large group of Israeli lawmakers. The ceremony at the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial took place on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, established by the United Nations in memory of more than 6 million Holocaust victims, and includes 1.5 million mostly Jewish victims who died at Auschwitz. Survivors walked through the gate that bares the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Makes You Free) sign and laid a wreath at the former camp's Executions Wall, where the inmates, mainly Polish resistance members, were shot to death. About 60 members of the Knesset, or half of the Israeli legislature, joined the survivors for the observances that included visits to the red brick Auschwitz barracks which house a collection of the victims' belongings and hair, and a list of the names of more than 4.2 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. In a special ceremony in the Birkenau section of the camp, they also heard from one of the survivors about the 15,000 people killed in the Death March, when Nazis fleeing the advancing Soviet army in January 1945 forced inmates still able to walk to march west in freezing weather.

Israeli opposition leader Isaak Herzog said the lawmakers came in such a large group "to cry, but also to be aware that such horror can take place again." The lawmakers will also meet their Polish counterparts and others in an unprecedented session held outside Israel.

^ It has been 69 years since the end of the Holocaust. It seems that more has been done in the last 10-20 years to honor the victims and the survivors then in the first 10-20 years after the war ended. Since more and more survivors are dying everyday we need to do more to both record their stories and the names, dates, etc of those that didn't live as well as to make sure they (the survivors) have everything they need since many still struggle. ^

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/01/27/auschwitz-survivors-mark-liberation-anniversary/4936177/