Press Releases: Department of State Event Commemorating Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018


Notice to the Press

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

April 9, 2018


On Wednesday, April 11, 2018, during the Holocaust Days of Remembrance, the Department of State and the Embassies of Israel and Poland will sponsor a Yom HaShoah observance event at the U.S. Department of State. The event will commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and honor the memory of Mrs. Irena Sendler, a Polish citizen who defied the Nazis to save thousands of victims – including an estimated 2,500 Jewish children – by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto. There will be a screening of the documentary, “The Irena Sendler Story.” The keynote speaker for the program will be Mr. Zygmunt Rolat, a Holocaust survivor who has worked tirelessly to ensure that the legacy of Irena Sendler lives on. There will be a question and answer session after the screening.

Holocaust Remembrance Day – or Yom HaShoah in Hebrew—also marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Yom HaShoah will be officially observed in the United States this year on Thursday, April 12, which corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar.

The program will take place on April 11, 2018 starting at 12:15 p.m. in the Department of State’s Dean Acheson Auditorium.

This event is open to the press. Video cameras will need to arrive at the 23rd Street entrance to the Department of State by 11:15 a.m. Journalists and still photographers should arrive there by 11:30 a.m.

Media representatives may attend this event upon presentation of one of the following: (1) A U.S. Government-issued identification card (Department of State, White House, Congress, Department of Defense or Foreign Press Center), (2) a media-issued photo identification card, or (3) a letter from their employer on letterhead verifying their employment as a journalist, accompanied by an official photo identification card (driver’s license, passport).

For further information from the U.S. Department of State, please contact the Office of Press Relations at (202) 647-2492 or via e-mail at papressduty@state.gov.