The United Nations has designated January 27 — the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp — as an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. This year, the theme for that day and the week of events surrounded it is “The Holocaust and Human Dignity.” The following are a few of the events scheduled to take place. For a complete list of events, visit www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance or email holocaustremembrance@un.org

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27

UN Holocaust Memorial Ceremony

General Assembly Hall

11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Hosted by Cristina Gallach,

Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information. Speakers include United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; Danny Danon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations;  Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations. Barbara Winton will introduce a video tribute to her father, Sir Nicholas Winton, who rescued 669 children from the Holocaust on the Czech Kindertransport.  Holocaust survivor Beate Klarsfeld will be keynote speaker. Personal testimony will be delivered by Jewish Holocaust survivor  Haim Roet and by  Zoni Weisz, a Dutch Sinto survivor. The Holocaust memorial prayers will be recited by cantor Gideon Zelermyer and the Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue Choir from Montreal. The event will conclude with a performance by the United States Military Academy at West Point Jewish Chapel Choir.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 28

UN Dept. of Public Information NGO Briefing: 
“The Future of Holocaust Education”

At: Conference Room 4

11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Experts will examine current trends in Holocaust research and education.

Key questions to be addressed include how to expand teacher training and Holocaust education around the world; how to adapt to a changing environment with the rise of multicultural classroom settings and fewer and fewer eye witnesses to testify to the Holocaust and what role international organizations have to play in the field.  Panellists will include Debórah Dwork, Rose Professor and Holocaust History, founding director of Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Clark University; and several others.

“Woman in Gold”

— Film Screening and Discussion

At: Trusteeship Council

6:30 – 9 p.m.

The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, in partnership with the World Jewish Congress and the Weinstein Company, will organize the film screening and discussion that will shed light on the loss of personal property and humiliation that Jewish families endured in Nazi-occupied Europe, and how difficult it has been for them to attain justice. “Woman in Gold” is the true story of one woman’s journey to reclaim her heritage and seek justice for what happened to her family. Sixty years after she fled Vienna during the Second World War, Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren) battles to retrieve from Austria family possessions seized by the Nazis, among them Klimt’s famous painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.