Holocaust Remembrance Day

The U.S. observes Days of Remembrance, the nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust, in April each year. For the past 19 years, FIT has commemorated the Holocaust with a lecture, exhibition, and an all-day reading of the names of victims. This year, due to COVID-19 and the fact that the college is operating remotely, the traditional commemoration cannot be held.

Instead, FIT’s Holocaust Commemoration Committee is sharing a lecture titled Fashion Metropolis Berlin, a collaboration between The Museum at FIT and the Museum at Eldridge Street, to honor the day, which is being held this year on Thursday, April 8.

Fashion Metropolis Berlin tells the story of Berlin’s fashion industry in the early 20th century. Hundreds of Jewish clothing manufacturers lost their livelihoods and their lives because of the Holocaust. Journalist Jennifer Altmann, FIT historian Keren Ben-Horin and author Uwe Westphal discuss the lives of several successful fashion houses before and after World War II.

In addition to watching the lecture, FIT’s Holocaust Commemoration Committee invites you to join in honoring the victims of the Holocaust by reading some names of victims included on these lists of children and adults, to show that the world has not forgotten.

The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of 6 million people, mostly Jews, by the Nazi regime, its allies, and collaborators. But the command to exterminate people also included the Roma and Sinti people, Jehovah’s’ Witnesses, homosexuals, Slavs, dissidents, those with mental and physical disabilities, Soviet soldiers and many more.

To learn more about the Holocaust, you can visit The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, Yad Vashem.

The Holocaust was an unspeakable crime against humanity. Yet over the years, many survivors have spoken, telling their stories in books and articles, in film and theater and dance. FIT has given these filmmakers, scholars, journalists, authors, fashion designers, religious leaders, and artists a platform at its annual commemoration as a potent reminder of those who perished.