The City of Alexandria observed its 37th annual Days of Remembrance ceremony, bringing residents, civic leaders and faith communities together to honor the six million Jews and millions of other victims of the Holocaust.

The noon ceremony was held April 14 at the Frank and Betty Wright Reading Gardens at the Charles E. Beatley Jr. Central Library on Duke Street, continuing a tradition that has made Alexandria the first municipality in the Washington metropolitan region to formally observe Holocaust remembrance each year. The observance is part of the national Days of Remembrance, a weeklong commemoration led by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum under a congressional mandate.

Elizabeth “Barry” White, Ph.D., a recently retired historian and former research director for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for the Prevention of Genocide, served as the ceremony’s featured speaker. White previously spent decades at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she worked on investigations and prosecutions of Nazi criminals and other human rights violators. In her remarks, she reflected on the enduring responsibility to remember the Holocaust accurately and to confront hatred and genocide in all forms.

Also addressing the crowd was Rabbi Stephen Rein of Agudas Achim Congregation. Rein recounted the story of his grandfather’s survival during the Holocaust.

“The story of my grandfather is nothing short of a miracle,” Rein said. “It is the story of facing unimaginable horror, the story of picking up and moving to a new land with little more than a shirt on his back. It is the story of losing all that he loved and then finding love and building a family. To his dying day my grandfather never forgot what he lost.”

Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley served as emcee of the ceremony, leading the ceremonial lighting of a 54-inch solid brass candelabrum, a central symbol of the city’s annual observance. The candelabrum was donated to Alexandria by the late Charlene Schiff, a Holocaust survivor, and her husband, Ed Schiff, in memory of her parents and sister, as well as the millions who were murdered during the Holocaust. Each of the candles represents a commitment to remembrance, human dignity and the rejection of antisemitism and racism.

Bagley emphasized that the ceremony is not only an act of memorialization but also a call to action. As survivor voices grow fewer with time, leaders underscore the importance of education and public engagement to ensure the lessons of the Holocaust are not forgotten or distorted. The Schiff candelabrum, officials noted, is also made available to local schools and civic organizations studying the Holocaust.

The Days of Remembrance ceremony, organized by the city’s Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities, also featured musicians Jane Pollner and Sarah Hover performing musical interludes.

As the ceremony concluded, attendees observed a moment of reflection, honoring the victims and survivors of the Holocaust.

“Please remember the six million Jews, including one and a half million children, murdered at the hands of the Nazis and the collaborators,” Rein said in closing. “We remember but this memory must guide us forward. It must lead us to kindness, compassion, civility and action. And it must inspire each of us here today to prove ourselves worthy of being remembered.”