The state of Kansas will commemorate the Holocaust in a singular government sponsored memorial for the victims and survivors.
The 2023 State of Kansas Holocaust Commemoration will take place on Yom HaShoah, Tuesday, April 18, at 1 p.m. at the Topeka Downtown Ramada Inn, 420 SE 6th St., Topeka, KS.
Last year’s commemoration is available on the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education (MCHE) YouTube channel.
Founders of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants recognized that the lives of citizens are vulnerable to the power of elected officials. Their years of many efforts resulted in the government backed Yom HaShoah observance.
Gov. Laura Kelly will present the Kansas Proclamation for the Days of Remembrance, which includes the following: “…the Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators… the people of the State of Kansas should always remember the terrible events of the Holocaust and remain vigilant against hatred, persecution and tyranny; and the Days of Remembrance have been set aside for the people of Kansas to remember the victims of the Holocaust, as well as to reflect on the need for respect for all peoples…”
Harold Youngentob, son of survivors, will speak about his family’s return to their European homeland, Brest-Litovsk, Poland, in remembrance of the Holocaust.
Youngentob traveled with his mother, Irene, and her brother, Louis Pozez, and family to find, in part, some form of closure in response to the tremendous and tragic loss that they suffered at the hands of Nazis. Their parents and younger brother were brutally murdered after Nazis invaded their city at the start of World War II. They were only saved from a similar fate because their uncle, who was living in Topeka, Kansas, obtained visas for them.
The commemoration will be free and open to the public. Registration is requested at mchekc.org/Kansas-holocaust-commemoration. The ceremony will be livestreamed on the MCHE Kansas City YouTube channel and be available after the event.