Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday marks 77th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

Jan. 27 marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a time to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, raise awareness and provide education.

Thursday marks the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp where more than a million people were murdered.

The day is commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“It’s really important that we understand the tragedy of what happened, and we try to educate so that we don’t have it happen again,” says Debbie Fitzerman, president of Kingston Jewish Council.

Separate from Yom HaShoah, a more religious Holocaust Remembrance Day held in the spring within the Jewish community, the day intends to honour victims of the Holocaust through awareness, education and information campaigns.

“Every number had a name and every one of these victims was a real person that lived and had a real life and a family and a job,” says Yos Tarshish, director of Queen’s University’s Hillel, a Jewish campus organization.

“A big part of what we think about is, ‘How do we preserve their memory,’ and ‘How do we think about their memory?'”

Tarshish says the day is a time to remember.

“We talk a lot about, ‘never forget.’ I think there’s a flip side to that, which is ‘always remember,’ and they sort of go hand in hand.”