HomeMy WebLinkAboutApril 11 - Days of Remembrance
City of Edina • 4801 W. 50th St. • Edina, MN 55424
Contact: Krystal Caron, Communications Coordinator
Phone 952-826-0347 • kcaron@EdinaMN.gov • EdinaMN.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Edina to Hold Annual Human Rights Forum, Days of
Remembrance
Edina, Minn., April 11, 2019 – The City of Edina’s Human Rights & Relations Commission (HRRC) holds
an annual human rights forum entitled “Days of Remembrance.” The ninth-annual Days of Remembrance will
be held 1 to 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 28, at Edina City Hall, 4801 W. 50th St., and will specifically look at
“Surviving the Holocaust in France: With Help From Everyday Heroes.”
This year’s event will feature guest speaker Louise Dillery, a Holocaust survivor from Paris, France. She will
share her story about her life in Paris after the Germans invaded France. Dillery was 15 years old when she
witnessed the German army marching into Paris and remembers with great sadness watching the Germans
lower the French flag and replace it with the German flag. Growing up Jewish in Paris was extremely difficult
under Nazi occupation. Jews had their citizenship revoked and a registry was initiated for all Jews living in
France. Their freedom of movement was limited, their businesses were closed, their properties confiscated
and 78,000 Jews were deported from France to concentration camps with only 2,000 of those surviving the
concentration camps. Just a few years after Dillery’s mother died from tuberculosis, her father was taken by
cattle car and deported to Auschwitz, never to be seen again. Left on her own as a teenager, Dillery credits
her survival to neighbors and friends in Paris who provided meals, paid her rent and helped her to continue in
school.
As part of this year’s Days of Remembrance program, attendees of the forum will be able to view art projects
created by fourth- and fifth-grade students at Normandale Elementary School bearing the themes of
“Everyday Heroes” and “Compassion for Our Neighbors.” The students’ artwork will be displayed in the
lobby of City Hall on the day of the event.
Edina hosts Days of Remembrance each year in memory of victims of the Holocaust and to encourage the
community on the need for respect for all people. Days of Remembrance was recognized beginning in 2011
following a proclamation adopted by the City Council. In previous years, Edina has acknowledged women in
the Holocaust and genocides, the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, the crises in the Congo in which
six million people have perished since 1996, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and the 70th
anniversary of the end of WWII and the liberation of Auschwitz.
The Days of Remembrance human rights forum is free and open to the public. For more information about
the City of Edina’s Days of Remembrance program, visit EdinaMN.gov or contact Executive Assistant Jennifer
Garske at 952-826-0403 or jgarske@EdinaMN.gov.
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