Ambassador Marks Holocaust Remembrance Day

2 February 2011

Ambassador Feinstein lays wreath at the Monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes

On January 27, Ambassador Lee Feinstein attended a ceremony to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes.  Senate Speaker Bogdan Borusewicz, representatives from the Israeli and German Embassies, and officials from the city of Warsaw also attended.  After a poetry reading by Andrzej Seweryn, and a series of ecumenical prayers led by religious leaders, Ambassador Feinstein and the other guests laid wreaths in front of the monument.

January 27 marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designated this day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD), an annual day of commemoration to honor the victims of the Nazi era. Every member nation of the U.N. has an obligation to honor the memory of Holocaust victims and develop educational programs as part of an international resolve to help prevent future acts of genocide.