A day of remembrance for millions of Jewish men, women and children killed during the Holocaust was held in the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center yesterday.

Penn State Hillel held the Yom HasHoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, to commemorate the lives of those who perished throughout Europe. Hillel's memorial service featured the lighting of six candles, one for every million Jews murdered.

"The primary focus of this memorial is to show the past and present condition of the Holocaust," Hillel program director Yifat Shemmer said.

The service began with a reading of Holocaust victims' names from a special Yom HasHoah book that listed about 100,000 victims. The memorial was intended to perpetuate the memory of the individuals and restore their identity and dignity through public recitation of their names, Shemmer said.

"This is not just for Jewish people. We want to get all involved because it is very important for students to have this day and remember what happened," Shemmer said.

The memorial also featured historical photographs from the
Holocaust and photographs from Hillel's Holocaust Programming
and Educational co-chairwoman Alyssa Rosenblum's trip to Poland in 2005.

"I went to Poland before my senior year of high school. The experience was really moving. You know what you are going to see, but it's not until you get there that you realize you are standing where so many people perished. You can try to prepare yourself, but it is difficult," Rosenblum (freshman-business and marketing) said.

The visitors of the memorial experienced firsthand accounts of the genocide through photographs and diaries on display.

"The photographs presented are important to show what actually took place. The ruins and museums in Poland show that people still go through the horror of what happened," Shemmer said.

Commemorating the lives lost in the Holocaust each year is one goal of Hillel. "It's harder to find information on the Jewish community at Penn State. If [people] are interested in Judaism or the Holocaust, there are places to go. Hillel has events, but because the Jewish population is so small, there is not always as much of an emphasis," said Allie Myers (senior-communication science and disorders), Holocaust and Educational Programming co-chairwoman.

Visitors at the commemoration were invited to fill out memorial cards to express feelings regarding the lives lost.

"This year we wanted to do something more symbolic," Myers said. "We thought it would have more of an effect on people coming in throughout the day to learn and pass on the information."