YOUNGSTOWN — Properly remembering and honoring the estimated 6 million Jews the Nazis killed during World War II requires more than lamenting the horrors of the Holocaust and hoping nothing like it will ever occur again.

Such a commitment also means remembering survivors and protecting their memories, a local Jewish leader contends.

That was a core message Rabbi Paula J. Winnig delivered during the Jewish Community Relations Council’s annual Yom HaShoah Memorial Ceremony on Sunday afternoon.

Similarly, the 27th annual Community Holocaust Commemoration took place Thursday.

Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) is a somber reminder of the atrocities and horrors millions of Jews and others faced, such as torture, humiliation, forced labor, starvation and death. Many observers of the internationally recognized day also light yellow candles to keep loved ones’ memories and legacies alive.

As painful as it may be for some, it’s also important to remember the effects of Nazi violence by those “who wanted to wipe out every Jewish person on Earth,” Winnig said during the one-hour virtual event, themed “Torn from Home,” because that often reflected the conditions many survivors endured and the trauma they experienced while trying to move forward and build new homes and lives after the war.

It’s vital to remember those who perished at Buchenwald, Treblinka, Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen and other concentration camps also as more than mere numbers. Each person was “a valuable individual,” Winnig said.

The keynote speaker was Jacob Ari Labendz, director of Youngstown State University’s Center for Judaic and Holocaust Studies, who focused much of his presentation on the sanctity, meaning and significance of four Czech Torahs in the Youngstown area.

The four come from a collection of more than 1,500 scrolls that were distributed worldwide after having been rescued and saved from Nazi destruction.

Labendz, who’s also YSU’s Clayman assistant professor of Judaic and Holocaust Studies, and has written a collection of essays, recalled having traveled near Warsaw, Poland, at age 12 with his father to rescue a set of scrolls.

“That trip changed my life,” he said.

When the Nazis committed what many feel was the world’s largest act of anti-Semitism, during World War II, they not only tortured and snuffed out millions of lives, but “destroyed a way of life. We cannot know what could have been,” Labendz continued.

Another way to honor survivors is to record their stories by having them share information about their lives after the war, as well as how they have been shaped by the communities in which they live, he noted.

The event began with a candle-lighting ceremony in which several participants lit yellow candles for lost loved ones, some of whom perished in the gas chambers. One woman held up a black-and-white photograph of a family member who was killed.

In addition, candles were lit for survivors who were liberated from the concentration camps.

Perhaps the most valuable takeaways from this tragic slice of history is to remain firmly committed to ensuring no other groups of people are “targeted for extinction,” as well as continuing to work toward achieving a world in which peace, justice and compassion will prevail,” Winnig said.

“We hope to work for the day when all people will be united and whole,” she added.