Hundreds of St. Louisans will mark the largest annual community-wide Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 1 at Congregation Shaare Emeth, 11645 Ladue Road, in Creve Coeur. The program, supported by Leo and Sara Wolf through the Wolf/Najman Memorial, memorializes the six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust.

The event is sponsored by the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center.

This year’s theme, “The Holocaust in the Former Soviet Union: the 70th Anniversary of the Nazi German Invasion,” will pay homage to the 1.5 million Jews murdered in the Soviet territories. The program will include selected testimonies from the Museum’s Oral History Project’s outreach to the Russian community by Russian Survivors currently living in St. Louis. It is also a tribute to local veterans of the Soviet Army who valiantly fought the Nazis. 

The commemoration will include liturgical readings, memorial prayers and music performed by Tova, Gabriel and Mischa Braitberg (Elegant Ensembles) as well as a women’s choral group, comprised of Survivors and Witnesses from the former Soviet Union.  A procession of Torah scrolls rescued from the Shoah will also take place. Kent Hirschfelder continues to Chair Yom HaShoah. This year’s Co-Chair is Vera Emmons.  The program will also be presented in sign language.   

Beginning at 3 p.m. and continuing after the program, B’nai B’rith St. Louis will conduct “Unto Every Person There is a Name,” an international program in which the names of Holocaust victims are read aloud by volunteers.