Adjunct professor at Mars Hill College and Holocaust survivor, Dr. Walter Ziffer, will be the guest speaker at Temple Beth Shalom's Holocaust Remembrance Day at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 4.

The event will begin with a brief memorial service, followed by Ziffer's presentation, "Witness to the Holocaust."

Holocaust Remembrance Day is a time for remembrance, education, and advocacy on behalf of the six million Jews, and five million non-Jews throughout Europe, who were killed by the Nazis from 1933 to 1945.

It is a day that has been set aside for remembering the victims of the Holocaust and to serve as a reminder of what can happen to civilized people when bigotry, hatred and indifference reign.

Walter Ziffer is a Holocaust survivor who was born into a German-speaking Jewish family, converted from Judaism to Christianity, became an ordained Christian pastor and professor in Christian seminaries, and then returned to Judaism.

He is an adjunct professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Mars Hill College, as well as a freelance writer and author.

In this very personal program, Ziffer will recount his difficulties of surviving during the German genocide known as the Holocaust and of the importance of maintaining vigilance to prevent a repeat of this atrocity.

The program also counteracts contemporary revisionist distortions of the Holocaust.

As a Jew and a native of Czechoslovakia, Ziffer shares first-hand experiences of his town's invasion by German Nazi troops on Sept. 1, 1939, the first day of World War II, the two years following the occupation, deportation in June 1942, being conscripted into forced labor, which led to the deaths of most of his family members, and his induction into the German concentration camp empire.

This is also the story of his first love -- a love decimated by Nazi brutality that has left a mark that persists to this day. Using accounts from his own experiences, Ziffer describes the treatment received by prisoners, liberation by the Soviet army, and beginning a new life after the war.

This presentation is made possible through a grant from the N.C. Humanities Council's Road Scholars Speakers Bureau. The N.C. Humanities Council is a nonprofit foundation and state affiliate of the national Endowment for the Humanities.

The program is open to the entire community to join with the Sandhills Jewish Congregation in observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day at Temple Beth Shalom. Temple Beth Shalom is located at the corner of Jackson Springs Road and Hoffman Road in Foxfire.

For further information, call: (910) 673-5224 or visit the Sandhills Jewish Congregation's Web site at http://sandhillsjewish.org/ holocaust.html.

An information packet regarding the event is available to download.