Holocaust Remembrance Day Honored

Jewish Federation of the Desert Presents Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah)

PALM DESERT — The Holocaust was the systematic murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators. This year’s observance falls during the week of April 19 through April 26, with April 21 being the actual Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom Hashoah in Hebrew.

The Holocaust Remembrance Day activities will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 24 at the UC Riverside Auditorium, Palm Desert Campus, 75080 Frank Sinatra Drive, Palm Desert. The guest speaker will be Julie Kohner, Voice of the Generations.

Kohner has been a Jewish educator for more than 30 years, with a master’s degree in Educational Counseling. After her mother, Hanna, a Holocaust survivor, died in 1990, Kohner began to create educational programs to honor the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. Her goal was to teach the Holocaust as seen through her mother’s eyes. This was the beginning of Voices of the Generations, a unique and personal approach to Holocaust education.

Kohner has presented Voices of the Generations for the past 30 years. Julie’s parents wrote an autobiography, Hanna and Walter, A Love Story, which traces their journey from 1930’s prewar Europe to reuniting after the end of the war. Julie has also traveled extensively throughout Europe to many of the places her parents described in their book and has conducted interviews with survivors whose experiences paralleled her mother’s story of survival. As a result, Julie has become the voice of her parents, and of the survivors who shared her parents’ story, for future generations.

Voices of the Generations is a non-profit organization and has been presented throughout the United States, as well as Canada, Europe, and Australia. Programs have been sponsored by Jewish Federations and Community Centers, churches, schools, museums and film festivals. Julie Kohner has a published curriculum to accompany Hanna and Walter, A Love Story, preparing educators how to teach the Holocaust. Voices of the Generations is listed by the Los Angeles Unified School District as approved for Holocaust education. Julie accompanied the opening of the installation of a permanent display featuring Hanna Kohner at the Mauthausen Memorial in Austria in 2013. In 2014, she presented at the 44th Annual Scholars Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches.

Voices of the Generations teaches the devastation of the Holocaust through its impact on one family. It is through their only child, Julie, that Hanna and Walter’s story lives on.

For more information and to RSVP: leslie.pepper@jfedps.org