Photo: AFP
Members of Congress from South Florida are honoring Jewish lives lost on this Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-23) says antisemitism is nowhere near eradicated.
"Just last week antisemites distributed hate-filled flyers in Surfside in my district as part of a national push to blame Jews for COVID."
Similar flyers showed up later in other parts of the state and nation.
The lawmaker took part in a virtual event which also featured a Holocaust survivor who spoke about the importance of never forgetting the tragedies that happened so that they don't happen again.
Congressman Ted Deutch (D-22) had this warning.
"The dangers of antisemitism are not ancient history. They're happening now, they're rising and they're visibile in our own communities."
He says Congress and the federal government must play a role in protecting the Jewish community.
Congresswoman Lois Frankel (D-21) called it "alarming and shocking" that there are still Holocaust-deniers today, spreading lies and hatred throughout the world.
Holocaust survivor Helina Baumgarten says she lost her entire childhood and was witness to atrocities that were incomprehensible.
"The horrors that we shared, the loss that we shared is just incomprehensible. And unless the world knows about it and realizes and remembers it and learns from it, it will happen again."
Baumgarten was 7-years old when Warsaw, Poland was bombed.
Others taking part in the event included representatives from the Anti-Defamation League and other organizations.
Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945.