Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Capitol

Joseph Gringlas sitting between two other men

Joseph Gringlas was incarcerated in various Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz. He survived the camps, as well as a death march.

Leo Ullman and Congressman Don Beyer (VA-8) light a candle

Leo Ullman and Congressman Don Beyer (VA-8) light a candle in remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust. In 1940 Ullman was hidden with a couple in Amsterdam, and his parents were hidden in an attic elsewhere in the city. Ullman had no contact with his parents until 1945.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker.

The six candles lit in remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust

The six candles lit in remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust.

Congressman Don Beyer (VA-8) helps a woman light a candle

Remembering the victims of the Holocaust.

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."