Mensch Foundation to host Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in Palm Desert

PALM DESERT, Calif. (KESQ) - Wednesday is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It's a day urging people to honor the millions of victims to nazism and to develop educational programs to help prevent future genocides.

This year's ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Palm Desert Civic Center Park Amphitheater.

It will mark 81 years since the liberation of Auschwitz.

Steven Geiger, founder of the Mensch Foundation, says this year's event is especially meaningful in light of recent anti-semitism.

"Young people have to know that in the future starting today you have to respect the person next to you. You should not care about their color, their religion, their ethnic background, their gender, gay or not gay, that's their business," Geiger said. "There's antisemitism today, there's racism today, there's homophobia today. We have to stop it."

There will be several speakers at the event, including holocaust survivors.