Bay Area honors Holocaust Remembrance Day

Somber ceremonies were held across the world and in the Bay Area on Monday to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day in honor of the more than six million Jews and other groups murdered at the hands of the Nazi regime. 80 years ago, Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. 

"We’ve come here to honor the sacred memory of millions of people who perished in The Holocaust," said Rabbi Shimon Margolin, who held a memorial service at a center called the Russian Speaking Jewish Community in San Francisco, attended by diplomats and local and state leaders.

"The message of never again has never been more prevalent, more important, more essential," added Margolin, amid a recent rise in antisemitism globally and in San Francisco.

In the crowd was Mykola Baykloe, whose family was killed, along with more than 33,000 other Jews by the SS just outside the city of Kyiv in Ukraine.  

"My grandmother, her daughter and son and her daughter, Nazi fascists gathered all Jewish people and killed in Babyn Yar," said Baylkoe.

"It’s more important than ever that the community comes together, especially students, young people, to hear these stories, and understand how this can happen to six million Jews and of course, others that were victims of the Nazi regime, and to prevent this from happening again," said Oleg Ivanov, Northern California director of Stand With Us.

San Francisco