Holocaust remembrance event to focus on efforts of ‘One’

By selecting them to work at his factory, German businessman Oskar Schindler saved an estimated 1,200 Jews from certain death inside the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.

His story, told in the Academy Awardwinning film “Schindler’s List,” is an example of how one person’s actions made the difference between life and death for persecuted Jews during the Holocaust.

Schindler is among several individuals who saved Jews from death at the hands of the Nazi regime.

Some of these people will be recognized during the 2017 Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance program set for 2 p.m. Sunday at Oklahoma City Community College’s Visual & Performing Arts Center. The free community event is sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City.

Ruth Charney said as in years past, the program will be presented in a multimedia format designed to convey the theme, which is titled “One” this year.

She said the theme was inspired by the stories of people who decided to take some sort of action to help Jews escape Nazi persecution and death.

Charney and her husband, Richard, serve as the program’s artistic directors. Ruth Charney is the dean of arts at OCCC and Richard Charney is director of the Visual & Performing Arts Center.

“So many times we talk about governments or we talk about political parties. There are all these big things on who should have taken action or who did do what, but this is really focusing on one person who said ‘I’m going to save this person’ or ‘I’m going to save these people’ or ‘I’m going to talk to my government’ — they were the ones who made the decision.”

Charney said some people worked through established methods to try to help Jewish people while others broke the law and went behind enemy lines to render aid.

“Lots of people made lots of different choices,” she said.

Meanwhile, she said the traditional candlelighting remembrance ceremony will also be part of the program.

Although the event is free, the Jewish Federation is requesting that members of the public RSVP by Wednesday if they plan to attend the commemoration.