PATRICK SPACE FORCE BASE, Florida –
The Department of Defense theme for the 2024 Days of Remembrance observance from May 5-12 is “Behind Every Name a Story: The Courageous.” The U.S. Congress established Days of Remembrance as the nation's annual commemoration of the Holocaust.
This year’s poster honors a courageous rescuer, Adolfo Kaminsky. An Argentine-born member of the French Resistance, Kaminsky masterfully forged identification papers, passports, food ration cards, and other documents to save the lives of over 10,000 Jews, many of them children.
He risked his life and his health, losing his sight in one eye, to become one of the greatest rescuers during World War II.
The U.S. Congress established the Days of Remembrance as the nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust, during which we remember the six million Jews who were murdered.
The Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victims; Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), people with mental and physical disabilities, and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic, or national reasons.
Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and political dissidents, also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi Germany.
As we remember those murdered, honor the survivors, pay tribute to the rescuers, and celebrate the liberators during the Days of Remembrance, we are reminded why it is imperative to confront antisemitism and other forms of hate-based conduct and we are inspired to build a better future for all.