Salem State To Host Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony In Peabody

SALEM, MA — The annual Salem State University Holocaust Remembrance Day will be held in Peabody this year at the Higgins Middle School.

The keynote speaker for the April 13 event is Karen Kirsten, an Australian-American author and Holocaust educatore.

The event will run from 7 to 8:30 p.m. and is organized by Salem State’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in partnership with the North Shore Rabbis and Cantors Association. It is free and open to the public with registration required.

The ceremony will also be broadcast on Zoom.

Kirsten's book "Irena's Gift" was a 2025 National Jewish Book Award finalist and winner of two Zibby Awards. The event will focus on how one family affected by the Holocaust navigated generational trauma through the retelling of its history.

Kirsten grew up among refugees who did not talk about the past. In an effort to understand the generational trauma that shaped her family and to help heal her mother's pain, she researched her family's history and made several trips to Poland.

She reunited her mother with the people who hid her as a child and later helped secure Righteous Among the Nations medals for them.

"The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and our predecessor organization the Holocaust Center, Boston North have organized an annual Holocaust Remembrance event since the mid-1980s on the North Shore," said Christopher Mauriello, director of Salem State's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. "With rising levels of antisemitism, racism, and threats to liberal democracy both in the USA and abroad, the memory of the Holocaust, its causes and its horrific outcomes take on new urgency and significance."

Kirsten said the discussion is especially timely, citing "a recent global Pew Research study found the U.S. is the only country where a majority say most of their fellow citizens are bad people — 60% of Democrats and 46% of Republicans."

She connected that finding to the history her family experienced.

"The Holocaust didn't start with gas chambers. It began when people decided a group of their fellow citizens was the enemy," Kirsten said. "My mother survived only because a few everyday people chose curiosity and kindness over indifference and hate."

The ceremony is supported by Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston.

Zoom registration is available here.