Annual countywide Holocaust commemoration takes place in White Plains

It was the 30th year of the Garden of Remembrance in White Plains, a place where people honor the millions of lives lost during the Holocaust - 11 million total, with 6 million of those victims being Jewish.

News 12 Staff

Apr 28, 2022, 7:19 PM

Updated 953 days ago

Share:

People from across Westchester remembered lives lost during an annual countywide Holocaust commemoration. 
It was the 30th year of the Garden of Remembrance in White Plains, a place where people honor the millions of lives lost during the Holocaust - 11 million total, with 6 million of those victims being Jewish. 
It's also where the community gathers for "Keeping the Memory Alive," the county's Holocaust commemoration program. 
It means even more this year after a report from the Anti-Defamation League this week found antisemitic incidents reached an all-time high in the U.S. in 2021.
The ceremony Wednesday included music, remarks from community leaders, and the moving annual procession of the list of Torahs rescued from the Holocaust - 31 now treasured in the area.
Holocaust survivor Dr. Aliza Erber shared some of her memories in the keynote address.
She says 13 of her family members were murdered in the Holocaust. A few months after she was born, she was taken from her mother and put into hiding in an underground bunker.
“I was hidden away for almost two years in that bunker. We were never taken above ground. I never saw the sky or the sun. Our nourishment consisted of boiled grasses and roots, and often our mouths were taped shut. Sound carries," she said.