January 27 is the United Nations International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust. It honors those who died and suffered as a result of the Holocaust, with the hope that such remembrance will prevent future genocide. On January 27, 1945, Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, the largest Nazi death camp where more than one million people died, was liberated by Soviet troops. Although most of the people murdered there were Jewish, in addition, Poles, Gypsies, Soviets, homosexuals, the disabled, and political and religious opponents were killed there.
The Holocaust Museum Houston located at 5401 Caroline Street, is sponsoring a free program at the Albert and Ethel Herzstein Theater from 10am – 11am. It will highlight Giorgio Perlasca, an Italian who posed as a Spanish diplomat in order to intervene on behalf of Hungarian Jews.