This Saturday January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day and ahead of that is a dedication for the only Holocaust Memorial in Palm Beach County.
In fact, it is the only sculpture in the Southeastern U.S. that memorializes all of the children who were killed by the Nazis. In a video titled "Making of the Gendelman Children’s Holocaust Memorial," local artist Bruce Gendelman explains:
"When Rabbi Erica told me about the butterfly project and the meaning behind it, I said of course rabbi, anything you want."
Gendelman says the memorial takes the form of a tree cast from 32,000 pounds of bronze, with 5,000 ceramic butterflies that were painted by Holocaust survivors and public school students.
"It's a sculpture. It's a piece of art. It's a memorial conceived of by this ten-year old boy from czechoslovakia to memorialize and honor the 1.5 million children gassed in gas chambers."
The ceremony begins at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Holocaust Learning Experience, a non-profit operated by MorseLife, a senior care community in West Palm Beach.
Among those attending will be West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James, Gendelman and a Holocaust survivor.
The Holocaust Learning Experience has just received state funding to offer lessons from the Holocaust in public schools across all 67 Florida counties.