Holocaust survivors and religious leaders united on Friday at the Statehouse and voiced their concern over the ignorance or apathy toward genocide they say is prevalent in America, at the same time urging activism to stop the current genocide in Darfur.

Friday marked the first-annual United Nations International Day of Remembrance for Holocaust Victims.

“We hope that today’s gathering will not only be for remembrance of the past, but also will help us to prevent future genocide,” said Rabbi Reb Moshe Waldoks in the opening speech.

Sixty years ago on January 27, 1946, one of the largest World War II death camps, Auschwitz, was liberated by the Soviet Army, and the UN declared this date a day of remembrance for people around the world.

“I am a holocaust survivor, a former inmate of Auschwitz,” said Israel Arbeiter, president of the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. “As a survivor of the death camps, standing here on this day of remembrance I can ask why? Why was everyone silent? Much of what transpired could have been prevented.”

Arbeiter added that he hopes the act of remembrance will provoke action.

“Did we learn anything from the Holocaust? I don’t know.” Arbeiter asked. “We are here to remember and not let others forget. We teach our children and grandchildren about what happened to our generation. It must never happen again, whether in Europe, Africa or Darfur.”

David Gai, a survivor of the Sudanese genocide, spoke of his experiences and his escape that saved his life.

Gai also expressed his anger at the apathy and ignorance he sees in regard to genocides in his home country.

“I could not believe when I came to the U.S. in 2001 and I talked about my suffering, people acted like they didn’t know about the situation in the Sudan,” Gai said. “Now there is a genocide in Western Sudan, Darfur. People are being killed on a daily basis. We don’t want to wait until it is too late.”

Every attendee received an informational card on Darfur that urged the group to raise awareness for the genocide through writing to the White House.

“We are all tired of memorial services,” said Nancy Kaufman, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council. “Let us act so that we will not have another memorial. Today we ask you to honor their memory, your memory, with action.”

Kaufman strongly criticized the United States government’s reaction to the African genocides and said United Nations took too long in recognizing the need for an international day of remembrance.

“I am glad that the UN has finally, after 60 years, decided to honor the Holocaust with a day of remembrance,” she said.

Rather than criticizing the government for its inaction, Arbeiter encouraged activism and said he was grateful to the United States for the freedom and equality he enjoys today.

“Not in my wildest dreams could I ever imagine when I was younger entering a government building,” Arbeiter said. “At the age of 14, I was condemned a slave and sent to Auschwitz to die. Only by luck was I liberated. It is beyond my wildest expectation that I would be in this beautiful building speaking to dignitaries. It can only happen in America. God bless America.”