Museum to welcome survivor on Holocaust Remembrance Day

The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center will mark Yom HaShoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day — and the museum’s third anniversary by presenting Abraham H. Foxman, Holocaust survivor and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 19.

Foxman, whose life was saved by his Polish Catholic nanny and who has devoted a lifetime to fighting anti-Semitism, discrimination and prejudice, will discuss “A 21st Century Challenge: Protecting the Memory and Meaning of the Holocaust.”

Foxman’s ADL career has spanned nearly four decades, during which he has met with seven U.S. Presidents, Pope John Paul II, the leaders of European nations, Russia, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, China, South Africa and Argentina, to discuss important issues of the day.

A recognized authority on the Holocaust and Jewish resistance to the Nazis, he has helped to focus worldwide attention on the heroic efforts of Christian rescuers of Jews and has been a leader in developing education programs about the Holocaust.

Born in Poland in 1940, he was saved from the Holocaust as an infant by his Polish Catholic nanny who baptized and raised him as a Catholic during the war years. His parents survived the war, but 14 members of his family were lost.

Adding poignancy to the commemoration, six Holocaust survivors will each light a memorial candle in recognition of the six million Jews that perished during the Holocaust.

Opened on April 19, 2009, the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, which was built with the active participation of local Holocaust survivors, is widely visited on Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Karkomi Permanent Exhibition richly illustrates the narrative of the Holocaust through video testimonies and more than 500 artifacts, including a German rail car of the type used in the Nazi deportations.

Additionally, the museum features stunning reflective spaces, including The Room of Remembrance, which pays special homage to the 6 million Jews murdered during the Holocaust. Representative names of victims line the walls in a moving tribute to those who were lost.

The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is at 9603 Woods Drive, Skokie.