Columbus marks 41st annual Holocaust Remembrance Program; survivor’s daughter recounts father’s Kindertransport rescue

Columbus convened its 41st annual Holocaust Remembrance Program at City Hall Chambers on Monday, where elected officials, survivors and students gathered to remember the victims and hear firsthand testimony from the child of a Kindertransport survivor.

Rita Eppler, master of ceremonies, opened the program and acknowledged sponsors including Mayor Andrew Ginther’s office, the Department of Neighborhoods, Columbus City Council and Jewish Columbus. Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin told the audience that preserving survivors’ testimony is now a civic responsibility: “We will soon enter the first era with no living Holocaust survivors,” Hardin said, urging younger attendees to carry the stories forward.

The event’s central address came from guest speaker Sheryl Hecht, who recounted her father David Hecht’s experiences in Germany and his escape on a Kindertransport in February 1939. She described life under increasingly restrictive laws, forced deportation toward the Polish border, and how her father was one of the roughly 10,000 children saved by Kindertransport operations that brought children to Britain. At one point she said of painful memories, "There's a lot I'd like to forget," and later noted the dependence many survivors had on the kindness of sponsors and relief organizations.

Program organizers noted the scale of the atrocity the ceremony commemorates: approximately 6 million Jewish lives lost in the Holocaust and about 11 million total victims when including other persecuted groups. Rabbi Josh Warshawsky of Congregation Agudas Achim led the assembly in the song "Eli, Eli" and the memorial prayer El Maleh Rachamim. Survivors and representatives from Jewish and other communities were invited to light candles in remembrance.

Organizers also recognized long-serving volunteers and staff, including Gail Gray of the Department of Neighborhoods, who will retire this year, and thanked the Ohio Holocaust and Genocide Commission and community partners for helping students attend. The program concluded with an invitation to process to Battelle Memorial Park to place flowers at the Freedom Sculpture and to hear a rendition of Taps performed by Columbus Fire Battalion Chief Michael Vedra.

The gathering combined historical context, personal testimony and civic recognition to stress the program’s theme of "bridging generations" and to press attendees to remain vigilant against hatred and bigotry.

Plans: attendees were invited to lay flowers at the Freedom Sculpture and to use provided accessibility options for the short procession to Battelle Memorial Park.