Days of Remembrance: remembering the Holocaust Published April 17, 2014 By Staff Sgt. Maria Muriel Caspillan 20th Fighter Wing SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. -- Shaw Air Force Base will host it's first-ever Holocaust Days of Remembrance event May 1. The theme for the 2014 observance is Confronting the Holocaust: American Responses. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, "The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning 'sacrifice by fire.' The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were 'racially superior' and that the Jews, deemed 'inferior,' were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community." This year, the anniversaries of two seminal events in Holocaust history will be commemorated: the refugee crisis in the spring of 1939 and the deportation of Hungarian Jews five years later. American responses to the persecution and murder of European Jews invite reflection on the role of individuals, organizations, and governments in confronting hatred and mass atrocities. Shaw AFB is honored to present Dr. Lilly Filler as the guest speaker for the remembrance event. Filler is the daughter of Holocaust Survivors, Jadzia and Ben Stern. She was born in Munich, Germany after World War II and immigrated to the United States in 1949 when she was 18 months old. "It is an honor and pleasure to be asked to speak at Shaw AFB and acknowledge the importance of the armed forces in World War II," she said. "My father was always very passionate that everyone should know how important the armed forces were for his survival and the survival of my mom. When the American planes were flying overhead, he knew that the end of death and dying and the beginning of life and living were soon to begin." Filler oversees the Holocaust Museum in Memorial Park, Columbia. The project was dedicated on D-Day, June 6, 2001. Filler is co-chair of the Columbia Holocaust Education Commission and is Secretary of South Carolina Council of the Holocaust. Throughout April, various remembrance events will be hosted across the base including book readings to local elementary school students and informational video displays across the base. The featured book will be "Daniel's Story," which is a children's novel about a young boy's experiences during World War II and the Holocaust. Filler's presentation is scheduled for 2 p.m., May 1 at Palmetto Chapel. Military personnel, friends, and family are welcome to attend. For more information and volunteer opportunities, call Gary Rudman at (803) 895-3179, 2868 or (803) 464-8535.