Jewish center to honor Holocaust victims

The Jewish community intends to honor the more than 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust with a memorial service and exhibition today.

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The Augusta Jewish Community Center will hold Holocaust Remembrance Day and a Carl Lutz exhibit beginning at 6:30 p.m.

"In the Jewish tradition, when somebody dies, or, God forbid, is killed, there is a memorial for them where memorial prayers are said," community center Executive Director Leah Ronen said. "For the 6 million, many of them died without having that.

"It's important to remember them not just on Holocaust Memorial Day, but it's good that we devote one day to remember what happened so we can learn from it for the future."

The speaker for the memorial will be Herbert Kohn, who survived the genocide by the Nazis.

"He was a child during the rise of Nazism," Ronen said. "His stories are interesting. He grew up and eventually joined the American Army and went back to fight the Nazis. It's quite an astonishing story."

On loan from the United Nations, the Carl Lutz exhibit recounts the heroic exploits of the Swiss diplomat, who saved 62,000 Hungarian Jews from Nazi persecution while living in Budapest from 1942 until 1945, according to Ronen.

Though the service is Jewish, anyone wishing to participate in the memorial is welcome, Ronen said.

Large groups are asked to provide advance notice, and all are asked to wear white shirts or blouses in accordance with Jewish mourning customs.

To get more information about the event, call the Augusta Jewish Community Center, which is at 898 Weinberger Way, Evans, at (706) 228-3636.