The Tri-County Holocaust Remembrance Commemoration will be held Thursday, May 2 at St. Timothy’s Catholic Church.
It is titled “Seventy Years Since the Nuremberg Trials: Has the World Learned?” and is being held on the official date of Yom Hashoah, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The program, organized by Temple Shalom of Central Florida, remembers those who perished and those who survived the Holocaust and honors the rescuers and liberators for their acts of heroism.
This year’s theme will be examined in part by a short original play, written by program co-chair Phyllis Kalter. Directed by Steve Rubin, the play will examine the trials of three key Nazi perpetrators: Albert Speer, Hermann Goering and Herta Oberheuser. And it will feature several well-known Villages performers.
“Seventy years after the Nuremberg Trials, many Americans and Europeans do not believe that the Holocaust happened in modern times,” said program co-chair Susan Sirmai Feinberg. “It is important that all of us as human beings never forget, so that the millions who suffered and perished did not die in vain and that we continue to make this a much better world.”
The Villages Pops Chorus, under the direction of Bill Davis, will sing several peace songs. Temple Shalom’s Rabbi Zev Sonnenstein will blow the shofar to commemorate the Holocaust. And other participants in the program will include clergy from the Interfaith Community, the Martin Luther King Committee, Feinberg and Kalter.
Student winners of the Holocaust Writing Competition from The Villages Charter School and other Sumter County middle schools will be recognized.
The program will end with the traditional candle-lighting ceremony recognizing local Holocaust survivors, liberators and second generation. Anyone who knows a local survivor, second generation or liberator who would like to participate in this event is encouraged to contact Feinberg at Media@tscfl.org.
The program is free and open to the public. Doors open at 3:30 p.m. and the commemoration gets under way 30 minutes later. St. Timothy’s is located at 1351 Paige Place in The Villages. Questions about the program should be directed via e-mail to Temple Shalom at office@tscfl.org.
