First Selectman Mike Tetreau announced today that the Town of Fairfield Holocaust Commemoration Committee will welcome Alan Moskin as the featured speaker at this year’s Holocaust Commemoration on Wednesday, May 15, 2019.

Mr. Moskin, born in Englewood, New Jersey in 1926, is a World War II Army veteran who served as a member of the 71st Infantry Division. In that capacity, Mr. Moskin participated in the liberation on May 4, 1945 of Gunskirchen, a subcamp of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria.

Mr. Moskin will share the dramatic experiences he had during the war when he was engaged in combat in France, Germany and Austria, and will tell his haunting, first-hand story of the liberation of a Nazi death camp. Mr. Moskin, a graduate of Syracuse University and New York University Law School, has spoken to thousands of students and adults since he first began sharing his story some 50 years after the end of the war.

The Town’s annual Holocaust Commemoration will take place on May 15, 2019 at First Church Congregational, 148 Beach Road in Fairfield. The Commemoration, which begins at 7:30 p.m., will feature the Chamber Singers of the Fairfield County Children’s Choir and the Chamber Orchestra from Fairfield Ludlowe High School. In addition, survivors of the Holocaust and children of survivors will take part in a moving candle-lighting ceremony to honor the memories of the millions who died at the hands of the Nazi regime during the Holocaust, both Jews and non-Jews alike.

This year’s event will be Fairfield’s 36th annual Holocaust Commemoration. It is not only the Commemoration of the longest standing in the area, but the Fairfield event has also become the largest commemoration of the Holocaust in the area, attracting not only citizens of Fairfield, but also residents from all of the nearby communities.

A reception and refreshments will follow the conclusion of the Commemoration service. There is no charge for this event and the public is encouraged to attend.

Each year’s Commemoration is planned by the Holocaust Commemoration Committee, which is an official committee of the Town of Fairfield and consists of more than 30 members of the community coming from diverse backgrounds and religious faiths.

For more information, please contact Committee co-chair George Markley at 203-913-3708 or GCMarkley@aol.com.

The photo shows, left to right: First Selectman Mike Tetreau and Holocaust Commemoration Co-Chairs George Markley and Rev. Charles H. Allen, S.J., Fairfield University Chaplain and Special Assistant to the President, standing outside First Church Congregational where the 2019 Holocaust Commemoration will take place.