Ceremony held to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day in White Plains

A ceremony was held in Westchester County on Monday to mark Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The county-wide ceremony took place at the Garden of Remembrance in White Plains.

Hundreds of people, along with dozens of police officers, packed into the garden, to honor the six million Jewish people who died in the Holocaust. The ceremony was also held to never forget and make sure it will never happen again. It comes at a time when antisemitism has surged 360% across the U.S. since Oct. 7, according to the ADL.

Many in attendance were relatives of Holocaust survivors.

"Unlike my parents I've never starved, I've never had lice, I've never slept on a wooden pallet with dozens of others, never tortured like my father, never returned home to find my house occupied by strangers and my family murdered," said Michael Gyory, chairman of HHREC.

A sea of Torahs saved from the Holocaust were held tight during the event.

Not a sound was uttered as Dr. Annie Kleinhaus told her first-hand story of the terror that marred her childhood.

"I was 3 1/2 years old in May 1940 when the Nazis invited Belgium the country of my birth and the trauma of the events that followed never left me entirely," she said.

"It's important to remember those that did not survive, those who did so we can live on and to keep their memories alive in our souls," said Daniel Weinreb, the son of survivors.

The Garden of Remembrance was created by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center to honor the memories of those men and women, and to pay tribute to the brave people of all faiths who risked their lives to save others.