70th Annual Holocaust Observance Ceremony Held In Skokie
SKOKIE, Ill. (CBS) -- A ceremony remembering the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis in World War II was held in Skokie Sunday.
The remembrance has been a 70-year tradition for Jews in the Chicagoland area. Governor Bruce Rauner, whose wife Diana is Jewish, was among the hundreds attendees at the Skokie Valley Agudath Jacob Synagogue.
"Let us take this day of remembrance to reaffirm our conviction to fight against anti-Zionism in all of its forms," Rauner said.
A number of Holocaust survivors were there, including Charles Lipshitz.
"They decided to take us in a cattle car and move us to Bergen-Belsen and their plan was they're going to finish us but one day in the morning we got up and we see arriving the English army that was our liberation," he said.
Many in the Jewish community worry about the declining number of Holocaust survivors still alive and they say their stories have to be told while they still can be.
The ceremony is traditionally the largest gathering of Holocaust survivors in the Midwest.