WASHINGTON – Holocaust Remembrance Week commences across the country Sunday. And in that spirit, Fairfax County will observe its own Holocaust Day of Remembrance with a series of events tonight.
This will be the second Fairfax Day of Remembrance. Michel Margosis, a Holocaust survivor from Belgium who lives in the Springfield, Va., has pushed to make the Remembrance Day permanent in the county. He lobbied the County Board of Supervisors, and on April 8, the board unanimously approved his wish.
“People have to know what happened so that we can prevent it, as much as possible,” he told WTOP in a recent interview. “Discrimination is the seed for hate and hate leads to genocide.”
The United States Congress created the Days of Remembrance as the nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust. An estimated six million Jews were killed during World War II through a program of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.
Although the 85-year-old, who lives at the Greenspring retirement community, is retired, he is quite busy. He’s been on the county’s Human Rights Commission for more than 10-years, as well as a volunteer at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum for 21 years. He continues to give speeches on his life and the Holocaust for the museum, saying it is all geared to one goal, to ensure that history won’t repeat itself.
“That’s the eternal hope — never again,” he said.
In commemoration of the Holocaust, an evening of events is planned for Sunday, beginning at 5p.m., at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia.
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