Obama to speak at Holocaust remembrance event

President Obama will deliver a keynote address at a ceremony later this week remembering the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, begins at sundown Monday for observant Jews and ends at sunset Tuesday. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is holding events through Sunday, marking the remembrance day Tuesday by reading aloud the names of Holocaust victims in the Museum’s Hall of Remembrance from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

{mosads}Obama’s remarks will take place at an 11 a.m. Capitol Rotunda ceremony Thursday, according to the museum, which will be attended by lawmakers including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Holocaust survivors, World War II veterans and ambassadors. Nobel Laureate and founding museum Chairman Elie Wiesel will also deliver remarks.

Also Thursday, the museum will honor five Polish citizens who have been recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations” for rescuing Jews during the Holocaust. Each rescuer will light a candle with a Holocaust survivor and member of Congress in the Rotunda.

In a statement, Fred S. Zeidman, the chairman of the museum welcomed the president to the ceremony.

“We are honored that President Obama will participate in our Days of Remembrance ceremony,” he said. “At this critical moment, with hatred and antisemitism on the rise in so many parts of the world, and genocide still a reality, we are reminded of the continued relevance of the Holocaust and the urgency of its lessons.”

The museum is using the remembrance days to advance the responsibility to prevent genocide in the future with the theme of “Never Again: What You Do Matters.”

The week got off to a controversial start when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has long questioned the Holocaust, told a U.N. conference on racism in Geneva that the state of Israel had been founded “on the pretext of Jewish suffering” during World War II. Ahmadinejad also called Israel the “most cruel and repressive racist regime,” prompting the walkout of dozens of European Union diplomats. The U.S. had boycotted the conference.