In Remembrance

Members of Jesuit High School’s Key Club served as ushers and participated in the candlelighting ceremony honoring survivors of the Holocaust at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at the Italian Club in Ybor City on Sunday (Jan. 22).

The annual event is held by the Consular Corps of Tampa Bay on or near Jan. 27, which is recognized by the United Nations as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Representing Jesuit and the Key Club at Sunday’s ceremony, at which Holocaust survivors shared their stories, were Justas Schillinger ’17, Kyle Erickson ’17, Brice Sewell ’17, Thomas Thiel ’19, Gabriel Brown ’17, Spencer Wallace ’17, Kevin Mendez ’18, Connor Maloney ’18, Connor Murphy ’19, Nicholas Haskell ’19, and Drew Valenti ’17.

(Homepage photo: Thiel (left), Valenti, and Murphy assist with the candlelighting ceremony.)

Also, Morgan Moser ’17 was awarded the $1,000 1st prize scholarship by the Consular Corps of Tampa Bay for his winning essay about the Holocaust. The essay assignment this year was to explore examples where individuals or groups helped to save Jews from annihilation during the Holocaust; research how individuals and groups today are helping to combat anti-Semitism; and discuss what can be done to fight anti-Semitism today. It is estimated that between 1933 and 1945, more than 11 million were murdered in the Holocaust. Approximately six million of these were Jews.

Also this week, 47 Jesuit students plus chaperones who are traveling to Washington, D.C. for the March for Life on Friday (Jan. 27) visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday (Jan. 25). Several of the students experiencing the Holocaust Museum on Wednesday had also visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial to Nazi-era concentration and extermination camps in Poland last summer during Jesuit’s 17-day World Youth Day pilgrimage through Europe.

Below is a photo slideshow of the Key Club’s participation in Sunday’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony, and below that are a few photos from Wednesday’s visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.