ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. - The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) will host the "Holocaust Days of Remembrance" program 10:30 a.m., April 30 at the APG North (Aberdeen) Post Theater, Bldg. 3245.
ARL, which has hosted the event for more than 15 years, and Team APG invite local and private schools to attend, as many curriculums focus on the Holocaust during the months of March and April.
"Team APG has been involving the community in all of the Special Emphasis Programs," said Sheryl Coleman, an equal opportunity advisor with ARL. "It gives the students and faculty a chance to get hands-on experience at a minimum cost other than transportation. At each program the students and faculty gain knowledge of the experiences, trials, tribulations and background information affiliated with the particular culture being presented."
This year, more than 500 local and private school students and faculty from around Harford County will attend the event. They include Bel Air Middle School, Joppatowne High School, and St. Joan of Arc School.
The program includes the lighting of six candles in observance of the six million Jews who perished during the holocaust and a prayer and benediction by Rabbi Gila Ruskin from the Harford County Jewish Temple.
Holocaust survivor Robert Behr also will speak.
Born in Berlin Germany, Behr and his family became subject to Adolf Hitler's Nuremburg Laws and other anti-Semitic legislation in 1933. In 1942, after the family was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp. Behr worked at the camp transporting bodies for burial, laying railroad tracks to and from the camp and working in the kitchen until the camp was liberated by the Soviet Army on May 5, 1945.
After immigrating to the United States in 1947, Behr enlisted in the Army and was transferred to Berlin where he interrogated former Nazi personnel. He has since served in the U.S. Air Force civil service as an intelligence officer and as an adjunct professor at Sinclair College. He has bachelors and master's degrees in Modern European History.
Behr has been a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial museum since 2001.
Everyone is encouraged to attend the event which is free and open to the public.
"It is important individuals attend events such as the Holocaust Days of Remembrance to be reminded of what took place in history as a result of such a tragic event," Coleman said. "Team APG works hard to provide the military, civilian, contractors and the surrounding community with programs giving history to events and reminders of how these events changed the lives of all people throughout the world."
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