Original article by Stephen Silver, Jewish Expondent, January 13, 2026.
The annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day will take place on Jan. 27. The date is meant to mark the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, which took place on that date in 1945, 81 years ago.
Established by a United Nations resolution in 2005, International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed separately from Yom HaShoah, which is commemorated annually on the 27th of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. This year, that is marked on April 13 and 14.
There are different activities to mark the occasion in the Philadelphia area this year.
The Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation will host an event on Jan. 27, in collaboration with 3G Philly and Gratz College. It’s scheduled to take place from 5:30 to 6:15 p.m. at the Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza, in Levy Park, at 1619 Arch St., near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
The event will feature speakers, a prayer and a candlelighting. In the event of bad weather, the gathering will take place on Zoom.
Per the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, “Buildings around Philly [will] light up yellow to honor the lives lost and reaffirm our commitment to Holocaust education.”
BOMA Philadelphia, an organization of local real estate professionals, has listed International Holocaust Remembrance Day on its Building Illumination Calendar.
On the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Federation is also encouraging individuals to urge Congress to pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act, a bipartisan effort to require the U.S. Department of Education to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism.
In early January, a group of lawmakers in Harrisburg, including Sen. Steven Santarsiero (Bucks County), Sen. Judith Schwank (Berks County) and Sen. Nikil Saval (Philadelphia), circulated legislation to formally recognize Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Pennsylvania.
The Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey, meanwhile, will commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day with a Zoom-based conversation between Chris Mauriello and Regina Kazyulina, both Ph.D.s at Salem State University, at 7 p.m. on Jan. 27.
It’s called “Fragments of Memory: Lost Notebooks of Children’s Testimonies from the Holocaust.” The event is free, but registration is required.
On Jan. 30 at 7 p.m., Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel will host an International Holocaust Remembrance Day Shabbat service and performance, featuring music by Cantor Amy Levy and KI’s Professional Choir, and a sermon of remembrance by Rabbi Benjamin David. The event can also be viewed via livestream.
On Feb. 1, a few days after the Center City commemoration, the Holocaust Awareness Museum and Education Center, Sons and Daughters of the Holocaust and 3G Philly will present a documentary called “Traces: Voices of the Second Generation,” which deals with the subject of “children of Holocaust survivors as they confront memory, identity, and inherited trauma.”
The event, at 190 Camp Hill Road in Fort Washington, will also feature a panel discussion among second- and third-generation speakers in an “intergenerational conversation about remembrance, resilience, and the responsibility of carrying these stories forward.” The event is free.
Speaking of documentaries, at 1 p.m. on Jan. 27, the Kaiserman JCC in Wynnewood will feature Heather Dune Macadam’s “999 The Forgotten Girls,” the story of nearly 1,000 young Slovak Jewish women who were sent to Auschwitz in March 1942, in what was the first large transport of Jews to the death camp.
Tammy Forstater, the daughter of one of the survivors, will participate in a Q&A session after the film.
Additionally, an exhibit called “Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats” tells the story of Swiss diplomat Carl Lutz and his actions to save over 60,000 lives during the Holocaust, in his capacity as vice consul at the Swiss Embassy in Budapest.
The exhibit, to mark the 80th anniversary of these events, is on display at the Quaker Arch Street Meeting House through March 30.
Lutz had served as chancellor at the Swiss Consulate in Philadelphia in the 1920s and ‘30s, so there have been commemorations of those events in the region in recent years.
March 30 is both Lutz’s birthday and the 100th anniversary of his arrival in Philadelphia.
