Hundreds gather for Holocaust Remembrance Day event at Manitoba Legislature

Hundreds of Manitobans showed up for the annual event in remembrance of the Holocaust at the Manitoba Legislature Thursday morning.

Participants prayed for the six million Jews who were killed in the genocide and read out the names of more than 1,000 victims for Holocaust Remembrance Day, also known as Yom HaShoah.

"The responsibility of remembering the Holocaust is not solely for the Jewish community: It's for every community," Premier Wab Kinew said in a speech.

"Gathering together in this form is a way for us to keep this memory alive."

Belle Jarniewski, executive director of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada, said it's more important than ever to remember what happened amid an "incredible rise in hate."

"There are a lot of people who do not understand how dangerous this is," she said.

"We are, of course, looking ahead to a mandated program on Holocaust education, which is so important, and we're so grateful to the government for facilitating that after half a century of asking for it."

The Grade 6, 9 and 11 social studies curricula will be updated to make education about the Nazis' genocide against Jews mandatory starting this fall, the provincial government said in a news release Thursday.

The heritage centre helped develop the new curriculum guidance.

"We are working to ensure that [the future is] one where the Holocaust experience is remembered, is protected, and most importantly, is a guidance for our shared humanity that it would never happen again," Kinew said.

The province said new resources are being developed to prepare teachers to educate students on the subject and access external resources.