In Remembrance

The Consular Corps of Tampa Bay hosted International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday (Jan. 24) at the Italian Club in Ybor City, with a big assist from the Jesuit High School Key Club.

Key Club president Josh Heiman ’16, treasurer Andrew Mullan ’16, and club members John Dang ’16, Brett Vance ’16, Will Clewis ’16, Brendan Sutton ’16, and Ethan Sutton ’18 assisted with ceremonial activities and helped support the event.

In addition, two Key Club members were honored for their award-winning writing. Earning first and second place, respectively, for their essays about the cause and effect of anti-Semitism were Jeffrey Turn ’16 ($1,000 scholarship) and Gantt Meredith ’16 ($250 scholarship).

The event featured several noteworthy speakers, including Msgr. Robert Morris of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, County Commissioner Al Higginbotham, and numerous Holocaust survivors or others connected to it, making it an impactful and memorable occasion. One woman spoke of living a blissful childhood in Germany until the day in 1933 when a Nazi soldier came to her 3rd grade classroom. He told all of the students that there were two “weak links” in their class, “dirty Jews,” who should be shunned by all. Three years later, her family fled to the U.S. just before her father was to be arrested. However, her mother’s family all died in the Holocaust.

Please see the photo slideshow below from Holocaust Remembrance Day: