Kirtland to host Holocaust remembrance ceremony Published April 18, 2013 By Adam Bailey Nucleus staff writer KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- Kirtland will observe Holocaust Remembrance Day with a ceremony. The Chapel will host the event April 26 at 10 a.m. "We're hosting the Holocaust Remembrance to honor those who perished and to also remember the event and to make sure we don't repeat it," 1st Lt. Jason Holzman, Holocaust Remembrance Day committee member said. The Holocaust Remembrance Day, also known as Yom HaShoah, is observed as a reminder of the approximately six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. The event is held on the 27th of Nisan every year. Nisan is the seventh month of the civil year, or the first month of the ecclesiastical year, in the Jewish calendar. It's held on the 27th because it marks the day of the uprising at the Warsaw Ghetto, when the Nazis came to begin the final removal of all Jews and they formed an organized resistance and fought back. The Israeli government then designated the 27th of Nisan as its official "Holocaust and Bravery Day." "This year we're having a one hour ceremony comprised of poems, music, a candlelight ceremony, displays from the Holocaust and Intolerance Museum of New Mexico and a guest speaker," Holzman said. The guest speaker will be Shoshana Dubman, who also spoke at last year's event. Dubman, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, was born in a displaced persons camp for Holocaust survivors soon after World War II. She was raised by her mother's sister, who also survived the Holocaust after Dubman's mother died. Their family is from a small village in southern Poland. The museum and the Jewish Federation of New Mexico are also assisting in the event. The event is open to everybody. For more information, email Rajendra Panchal at rajendra.panchal@kirtland.af.mil.