Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony will be held Sunday

Every year, hundreds gather at the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach for Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) to remember the more than six million Jews who perished under the Nazi regime.

This year's ceremony, which will be held Sunday, will also mark the 70th anniversary of liberating victims from concentration camps and the 25th anniversary of the memorial.

For Andrew Hall, 70, the chairman of the Holocaust Memorial, this year's ceremony is also important in a time “when Anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise.”

“We are starting to see a rapid rise and it’s terrifying,” Hall said.

Hall, who is one of the youngest Holocaust survivors — spending the first six months of his life hiding from the Nazis with his mother, father and older brother, Allan — will be one of several speakers at the annual event.

Among the speakers: Magda Bader, a Hungarian concentration camp survivor; George Katzman, a soldier with Gen. George Patton’s Third Army when it liberated portions of the Dachau and Langwasser Lager concentration camps; Norman Braman, chair emeritus of the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach; and Eliza Diane Schemama, a witness to recent European Anti-Semitism.

The program will also include a musical performance by members of the New World Symphony, readings, musical solos, a memorial candle-lighting ceremony and community prayers.

This story was originally published April 8, 2015 at 9:57 PM with the headline "Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony will be held Sunday."