Asheville mayor proclaims Jan. 27 International Holocaust Remembrance Day; survivor family accepts
January 28, 2026 | Asheville City, Buncombe County, North Carolina
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Mayor Esther Manheimer read a proclamation declaring Jan. 27, 2026, International Holocaust Remembrance Day in the City of Asheville and urged residents to "commit themselves to the creation of a world that is safe, inclusive, and welcoming to all."
The proclamation, which cites the United Nations designation of Jan. 27 as a day to honor victims and survivors, said the city remembers the murder of "6,000,000 Jews" and "millions of other innocent victims" who perished under Nazi ideology and reaffirmed a commitment to oppose antisemitism, racism and other forms of bigotry. Manheimer emphasized that "the Holocaust didn't start with gas chambers, it began with the erosion of rights and legal protections coupled with state sponsored propaganda, bigotry, and dehumanization," and called on the community to make "never again" a lived reality.
Alan Baumgarten accepted the proclamation on behalf of Dr. Walter Ziffer, who did not attend because of his age and the weather. "I am the child of Holocaust survivors," Baumgarten said, and described his parents' wartime experiences: his father, Henry Baumgarten, was from Erfurt, Germany, captured in 1942 and sent to Theresienstadt; his mother was taken from a small Hungarian shtetl to a ghetto, then to Auschwitz Birkenau and later to work camps in Estonia and Latvia before surviving a death march and Bergen-Belsen. Baumgarten thanked the city, Congregation Beth Israel and the Asheville JCC for the proclamation.
The mayor's proclamation frames the observance as a reminder that discrimination and dehumanization can escalate to mass violence, and it urges residents to "speak out against hate in every form" and to uphold human dignity. The proclamation was read aloud during the meeting and accepted on behalf of an elderly survivor who could not attend in person.
No formal vote was recorded; the event consisted of a mayoral proclamation followed by acceptance remarks and community testimony.
The proclamation, which cites the United Nations designation of Jan. 27 as a day to honor victims and survivors, said the city remembers the murder of "6,000,000 Jews" and "millions of other innocent victims" who perished under Nazi ideology and reaffirmed a commitment to oppose antisemitism, racism and other forms of bigotry. Manheimer emphasized that "the Holocaust didn't start with gas chambers, it began with the erosion of rights and legal protections coupled with state sponsored propaganda, bigotry, and dehumanization," and called on the community to make "never again" a lived reality.
Alan Baumgarten accepted the proclamation on behalf of Dr. Walter Ziffer, who did not attend because of his age and the weather. "I am the child of Holocaust survivors," Baumgarten said, and described his parents' wartime experiences: his father, Henry Baumgarten, was from Erfurt, Germany, captured in 1942 and sent to Theresienstadt; his mother was taken from a small Hungarian shtetl to a ghetto, then to Auschwitz Birkenau and later to work camps in Estonia and Latvia before surviving a death march and Bergen-Belsen. Baumgarten thanked the city, Congregation Beth Israel and the Asheville JCC for the proclamation.
The mayor's proclamation frames the observance as a reminder that discrimination and dehumanization can escalate to mass violence, and it urges residents to "speak out against hate in every form" and to uphold human dignity. The proclamation was read aloud during the meeting and accepted on behalf of an elderly survivor who could not attend in person.
No formal vote was recorded; the event consisted of a mayoral proclamation followed by acceptance remarks and community testimony.
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