Connecticut’s 40th Annual Holocaust Commemoration ceremony will be held Friday, April 20, 11:30 a.m. at the State Capitol in Hartford – a time for state officials, survivors, and people of all faiths and backgrounds to commemorate the six million Jews murdered by Hitler’s Nazi regime.

The keynote speaker is Betty Deutsch of Fairfield. Born in August 1927 in Hungary, Betty was 14 years old when Hitler came to power. She survived Bergen-Belsen, Auschwitz and Birkenau, but her parents both perished at the hands of the Nazis. She moved to the United States in 1950.

The 40th Annual Statewide Holocaust Commemoration is sponsored by Voices of Hope, the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut (JFACT) and the Federation for Jewish Philanthropy of Upper Fairfield County. Additional sponsors are the Federations of Greater Stamford, New Canaan and Darien, Greater Hartford, Greater New Haven, Eastern Connecticut, Greenwich, and Western CT, in coordination with the Anti-Defamation League, the State of Connecticut, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Presiding over the ceremony is Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney.

The public is invited to the ceremony will be held in the Senate Chambers on the third floor of the State Capitol, 210 Capitol Ave., Hartford. A complimentary lunch will be held in the North Lobby for Holocaust survivors, program participants, attendees and elected officials. Kosher dietary laws observed. Buses available for Holocaust survivors. Lunch and bus reservations are necessary. Contact Ayelet Weber at JFACT, (860) 727-5771 or aweber@jfact.org.