![Heinz-Jurgen meditation](https://theorcasonian.com/wp-content/uploads/Heinz-Jurgen-meditation.jpg)
German Peacemaker Heinz-Jürgen Metzer meditating on the selection-site tracks at the Bearing Witness observation at Auschwitz-Birkenau
A Spiritual Encounter with the Jewish Holocaust of World War IIwill take place at “Yom Ha-Shoah” on Sunday April 11. A Candle Lighting Commemoration and a showing of the documentary film “Raising the Ashes,” will take place at 3 p.m. in the Eastsound Fire Hall Community Room. Since 1996, people from many countries and faith traditions gather on the sacred grounds of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi death camp in Poland, for an interfaith “Bearing Witness Retreat.” “Rising the Ashes” is a film that documents the first of these retreats. This Yom Ha Shoah commemoration is hosted by Ginni Stern, the international coordinator of the annual, interfaith Bearing Witness Retreat held on the grounds of Auschwitz-Birkenau. A reflective sharing circle and candle lighting will follow the film Elie Wiesel, Nobel Laureate for literature and a Holocaust survivor wrote: “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation”. For more information, contact Ginni Stern at 376-4320, ginni@zenpeacemakers.com or go to www.zenpeacemakers.org/auschwitz