Remembering the victims of the Holocaust
Between 1933 and 1945, six million Jews were killed by the government of Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. In 1980 the United States Congress established the Days of Remembrance in order to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust.
On May 5, 2016, the Holocaust Days of Remembrance Ceremony was held in the Capitol Visitors Center. Soldiers who liberated Nazi concentration camps, Holocaust survivors and their family members, were present for the ceremony. During the ceremony, six candles were lit by survivors of the Holocaust.
Penny Pritzker, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, said, "Every Day of Remembrance, we come together to try to remember the millions of lives—the sons and daughters, the mothers and fathers, the friends and neighbors—who died in the Holocaust. For every number, a name. Behind every name, a story."
Speaking of the veterans who fought in World War II, and who liberated Nazi concentration camps, Tom Bernstein, chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council said, "The very freedom they fought to preserve is always fragile. Every one of us has a responsibility to protect it."