In light of continuing concerns regarding large gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s State of North Carolina Holocaust Commemoration will be virtual and available for viewing on YouTube beginning at 1:00 pm on April 11 via the following link: http://bit.ly/2021commemoration.

Sponsored by the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust [a state agency in the N.C. Department of Public Instruction], the annual Holocaust Commemoration remembers and honors victims of the Holocaust, Holocaust survivors and their descendants, non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews [the Righteous Gentiles], liberators, and victims of other genocides.  Representatives of these groups will light memorial candles, and memorial prayers will be recited for the victims. 

The keynote presentation this year will be “Life as a Child of Holocaust Survivors” by Shelly Bleiweiss, a member of the N.C. Council on the Holocaust and Chair of the State Holocaust Commemoration Committee.  Shelly’s parents survived the Holocaust independently and in the open using fake identities, after having met and fallen in love during a deportation.  Shelly will share some unique experiences growing up as the first-born child of Survivors, what led him to a career in social work, and why he has been a Holocaust educator for over 20 years.

For more information about the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust, or for links to online & virtual Holocaust commemorations, visit the Council website at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/holocaust-council