City of Alexandria Observes 35th Annual Days of Remembrance for Victims of Holocaust

The City of Alexandria will observe the Days of Remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust, at noon on Monday, May 6, in Market Square, 301 King St.
Page updated on April 11, 2024 at 4:24 PM
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Dr. Alfred Münzer, recently retired physician and Holocaust Survivor, Ceremony Speaker

The City of Alexandria will observe the Days of Remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust, at 12 p.m. on Monday, May 6, in Market Square, 301 King St. The City of Alexandria hosts the annual ceremony as part of the weeklong commemoration of the national Days of Remembrance, Sunday, May 5, through Sunday, May 12. This is the 35th year the City has held the Days of Remembrance ceremony. The event is free and open to the public. In case of inclement weather, the ceremony will be held in the City Council Chambers located on the 2nd floor of City Hall, 301 King St.

The guest speaker will be Alfred Münzer, M.D. Dr. Münzer was born in the Netherlands during WWII and lost his father and two sisters in the Holocaust. He spent the first four years of his life hidden from the Nazi occupiers with a Dutch-Indonesian family residing in The Hague. He and his mother immigrated to the United States in 1958.  For the past ten years, he has been a volunteer at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum translating diaries from Dutch into English for a five-volume series called Jewish Responses to Persecution and as a docent for the museum’s permanent and special exhibitions.

During the ceremony, Mayor Justin Wilson and members of City Council will light a candelabrum that the late Holocaust survivor Charlene Schiff and her husband, Ed, donated to the City. The 54-inch high, solid brass candelabrum was donated in memory of Charlene Schiff’s parents and sister, and the six million Jews and millions of others who perished in the Holocaust. The Schiff candelabrum is also made available to schools and civic groups studying the Holocaust.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum leads the nation in the weeklong Days of Remembrance commemoration, in accordance with Congressional mandate.

For additional information on Alexandria’s Days of Remembrance ceremony, call the Department of Recreation, Parks & Cultural Activities at 703.746.5565.

If you prefer communication in another language, free interpretation and translation services are available to you. Please email LanguageAccess@alexandriava.gov or call 703.746.3960.

For reasonable disability accommodation, contact CherylAnne.Colton@alexandriava.gov or 703.746.5565, Virginia Relay 711.