‘This is an important announcement’ – local Holocaust memorial gets national memorial status

BEDFORD, Ohio. The federal government has designated the Cleveland Holocaust Memorial as a national memorial.

Dozens of people gathered at Zion Memorial Park on Thursday for the flag-raising ceremony. Over the weekend, President Biden signed legislation renaming the Holocaust Kol Yisrael the National Memorial.

“This is an important statement from the US government saying that we are giving the right to vote to six million people whose voices were needlessly silenced,” said Andrew Mizsak, board member of the Kol Israel Foundation.

The memorial was built in 1961 as a place for parishioners to pray and mourn.

“It’s very emotional,” added Mark Frank, chairman of the KIF memorial. “Obviously I come to my senses and think about my ancestors, my parents, grandparents, who never survived the Holocaust.”

Human remains, ashes and artifacts from three concentration camps are buried under the monument. This is a sign of resilience and memory, which is getting deeper every day.

Erica Gold, a 90-year-old survivor, was proud to be present at the ceremony.

“The fact that I was born in Budapest, Hungary gave me a small chance to survive,” she said. “That’s because all the children of my age in the outskirts were immediately gassed as soon as they got to Auschwitz.”

Gold fled Europe in 1950 and Cleveland has stayed at home ever since.

“My mother’s family in less than two months, 45 people were killed, close relatives, so it was the gas chambers,” Gold added.

Gold engraved the name of the murdered family member on the wall of the memorial. She knows that her ancestors would be proud of this historical milestone.

“It’s amazing that the United States government recognizes that the Holocaust happened because it happened,” she said.

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