JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. –
Joint Base Langley-Eustis hosted Holocaust Day of Remembrance ceremonies at Langley Air Force Base and Fort Eustis, Virginia, April 16 and 17, 2015.
The theme for this year's ceremonies was "Learning from the Holocaust: Choosing to Act," with guest speakers sharing stories and videos of survival.
"Thank you all for coming out to remember the victims and learn lessons of the Holocaust," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Robert Herrold, McDonald Army Health Center acting commander. "This year's theme is perfect for the guest speakers, who are here to educate us [on the Holocaust]."
The speakers from the Holocaust Commission, United Jewish Foundation of Tidewater told the story of Dana Cohen, a Jewish Holocaust survivor who now lives in the local community, using a series of videos that focused on various periods of her life during the ceremony held at Fort Eustis.
"I was a young child around nine years old, living in Poland," said Cohen. "Once the war began, my mother and I went to live in the cellar of my grandparents' house, while my military officer dad got called to duty."
Cohen and her mother were eventually found and taken to Siberia to work as slave laborers for two years.
"There was a ton of tragedy and suffering all around us," remembered Cohen. "But we would always find a way to survive; my mother would always say that this was just 'one long chain of miracles.'"
The mother-daughter duo finally ended their struggles in Africa, one of the only places that allowed Jewish individuals to live normal lives. They lived in Africa for many years before Cohen went to live with an uncle in Washington D.C., where she met her husband and moved to Virginia.
The guest speaker at the Langley AFB Holocaust Day of Remembrance ceremony was Ruth Kapp Hartz, Holocaust survivor, who had her name changed during her time in hiding to conceal her Jewish identity.
During the Langley ceremony, Hartz shared her story of the time when she and her family were sheltered by a French farm family and the months she spent in a Catholic convent to avoid capture the Vichy French Police and the Gestapo.
Hartz said she feels the history of the Holocaust and other acts of genocide cannot be ignored. She also said she hopes the many thousands of students will continue to address will grow into citizens who will do everything in their power to prevent future atrocities.
"The support [of those around us] should bring focus on us, our present, past and future, this way we dedicate ourselves with the principals of America," said Herrold. "We are all created equal and should be treated with dignity and respect at all times, that's what we should focus on. The tragedies that have happened in our lives, the world and history in time are never going to go away, unless we pass them along. We cannot forget to do that."