Holocaust survivor Henry Friedman speaks as Palm Desert Mayor Evan Trubee (far right) and others listen during a ceremony recognizing this week’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Holocaust survivors and their descendants shared testimony Wednesday at Palm Desert’s 16th Annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day program, reflecting on the Holocaust while addressing ongoing concerns about antisemitism.
Held at the Civic Center Park Amphitheater adjacent to the the city’s Holocaust Memorial, the event was organized by the Mensch International Foundation to honor the 6 million Jewish victims and others killed by the Nazi regime.
Steven Geiger of the Mensch International Foundation opened the program by invoking the Hebrew word “l'chaim,” saying that while the ceremony remembered tragedies ranging from the Holocaust to more recent acts of violence, “we must live on, we must look to the present, and most of all, to the future.”
Holocaust survivor Henry Friedman addressed attendees with an urgent message about combating antisemitism through education. "When I came to America, I was told to forget that my nightmares never stopped," Friedman said. "Why did I survive?"
Rabbi Benzion Lew sings during the Wednesday ceremony at Palm Desert’s Civic Center Park Amphitheater.
Friedman expressed alarm at rising antisemitism. "As Holocaust survivors who worked tirelessly to rebuild their lives after so much loss and eventually immigrated to America, witnessing today, unrelenting search of antisemitism here and around the world is frightening," he said.
He emphasized the importance of teaching tolerance to young people. "If we are to live together in peace, then we have to learn about and accept each other differences," Friedman said. "Discrimination, antisemitism and bigotry can be lessened if we start teaching our children at an early age, then we're all different, and each one of us has something different and special to offer."
Friedman quoted the late Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, stating that teaching the Holocaust is about more than communicating knowledge. "We want the students to realize that the Holocaust is a triumph of the human spirit," he said. "We want students to recognize that a danger of bigotry and blind, brutal prejudice."
The survivor concluded by noting that his enemy today is time. "I'm asking you, and I hope you will communicate this message to as many as possible," Friedman said. "And let us say, Never again, never again."
Attendees of a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony visit the city’s Holocaust Memorial as the event was winding down.
Rabbi Boz Werdiger of Chabad of Palm Springs shared his grandfather Nathan Werdiger’s Holocaust experience, describing his survival through multiple labor camps before enduring Auschwitz, a death march and Buchenwald.
“He went through it all,” Werdiger said, noting that his grandfather celebrated two birthdays: the day he was born and the day he was liberated by the U.S. Army at Buchenwald.
Werdiger connected his grandfather’s experiences in Poland to contemporary antisemitism in Australia, where Werdiger grew up in Melbourne, a city with one of the highest per-capita populations of Holocaust survivors outside Israel. He described how his grandfather, who was raised in the Polish town of Sosnowiec near the German border, urged him as a child to conceal visible signs of his Jewish identity.
“The strength of those who survived and carried these stories forward, the courage it takes to remember something so painful and to share it, is something we should never take for granted.”
“Put on a baseball cap. Tuck them in,” his grandfather would tell him, referring to his yarmulke and tzitzit.
“I didn’t understand what he was saying,” Werdiger said. “I knew what he meant, but I didn’t get it. I didn’t think there was any need to do that. I wasn’t growing up in Poland.”
After recent antisemitic attacks in Australia, including the Bondi Beach incident that killed more than a dozen people during a Hanukkah celebration, Werdiger said he came to understand his grandfather’s fears.
“The scene was so surreal, but I understood, and I understood what my grandfather was telling me,” he said.
Audience members stand as a speaker asks that Holocaust survivors and their descendants rise to be recognized Wednesday at Civic Center Park Amphitheater.
Werdiger said Holocaust remembrance carries both universal and specific lessons. While “never again” reflects a broader moral responsibility, he said maintaining Jewish identity and traditions remains essential.
“I still have to go with my yarmulke, and I still have to wear my tzitzit out, and I don’t want to ever have to hide or be ashamed of my Jewish beliefs or my identity or my traditions,” he said.
Palm Desert Mayor Evan Trubee also addressed the crowd, emphasizing the importance of remembering individuals, not just statistics.
“The Holocaust is often talked about in numbers, but behind every number was a person, someone with a name, a family, a daily life, people who laughed, worked, hoped and loved, just like all of us do,” Trubee said.
He thanked survivors for continuing to share their stories.
“The strength of those who survived and carried these stories forward, the courage it takes to remember something so painful and to share it, is something we should never take for granted,” he said.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed on Jan. 27, marking the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet troops. The Palm Desert ceremony was held Jan. 28 to accommodate participant schedules.