Jewish Federation of the Desert to host Holocaust Remembrance Day event

The Jewish Federation of the Desert is hosting a Holocaust Remembrance Day event on Sunday to honor the lives of the Holocaust survivors that live in the Coachella Valley.

Talia Lizemer-Hawley who is part of the Holocaust Committee at the Jewish Federation of the Desert said there are about 20 Holocaust survivors living in the Coachella Valley now.

The United Nations declared January 27 to be Holocaust Remembrance Day to honor the lives of those that were lost and survived.

January 27, 1945, is the day the biggest concentration camp called Auschwitz was liberated by the Russian Army.

“It’s a day of remembering those who didn’t survive this atrocity and honoring those who we still have left amongst us. In a few years, we’re going to be the ones telling the story and it won’t be firsthand," explained Leslie Pepper, the Director of Community at the Jewish Federation of the Desert.

On Sunday, January 29 the Jewish Federation of the Desert will be hosting a free event. There will be candle lighting for the survivors who now are all over 80 years old. It's a two-hour program that will also feature music from Europe during the 1930s.

If you can't make it to a Remembrance Day event, Pepper and Lizemer-Hawley urge people to talk about what happened to make sure history doesn't repeat itself.