Governor Ron DeSantis unveils Florida Holocaust Memorial and honors Holocaust Survivor David Schaecter with Governor’s Medal of Freedom

Medal of Freedom honoree David Schaecter speaks on March 25

Press release from the Office of Governor Ron DeSantis

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Today, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis unveiled the Florida Holocaust Memorial in Memorial Park, remembering the over six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust and honoring the survivors who later made their homes in the Sunshine State. The Governor was joined by First Lady Casey DeSantis, Holocaust Survivor David Schaecter, and Israeli Consul General Maor Elbaz-Starinsky.

The memorial, constructed in iron and limestone, displays faces and names of Holocaust survivors who made their homes in Florida after the war. Florida-based Jewish groups assisted the Florida Department of Management Services in sourcing survivors’ names and images. The unveiling comes on the date in 1942 when the first Jews were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

“First Lady Casey DeSantis and I were honored to unveil the Florida Holocaust Memorial in the Florida Capitol Complex’s new Memorial Park today,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “This memorial serves as a powerful symbol of our commitment to never forget the atrocities of the Holocaust and to recognize the survivors who later moved to our state – including David Schaecter, whose dedication to educating generations of Floridians about the Holocaust has earned the Governor’s Medal of Freedom. Florida is a better place because of the Holocaust survivors who have called our state home. We’re grateful for their contributions, and we’re proud to stand with the Jewish community.”

During the unveiling, Governor DeSantis awarded the Governor’s Medal of Freedom to David Schaecter, a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor who moved to Miami in 1957. Schaecter’s family was taken from their home in Czechoslovakia, and he spent time in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps before escaping during the Nazis’ retreat from allied forces. His brother was killed in Buchenwald, and he never saw his parents or two sisters again after the war.

Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Executive Director Dave Kerner, Senator Tina Polsky, and former Senator Eleanor Sobel spoke alongside Governor DeSantis.

The Florida Holocaust Memorial is the first memorial placed in Memorial Park, which was established by Senate Bill 2506 in 2023.

    • This has nothing whatsoever to do with DEI. This is a memorial to people who were murdered in the Holocaust. Lest we forget history and be doomed to repeat it.
      How you connected the Holocaust with DEI is totally amazing to me.

      • Well yeah steely, but anything referring to honoring blacks who broke color barriers – see DOD pages on Tuskegee Airmen, Jackie Robinson, and Colin Powell – are being removed by the Trump administration as being DEI. We – not just the Germans – have a history which is not always something to be proud of and of which our young should be made aware of. That’s what DEI addresses.

    • Yes, DEI is on its way out, but the Holocaust has nothing to do with DEI. Six million Jews died last century, and thanks to our country, World War II came to an end, and the survivors could have their land shortly after. Read Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl so your unculture may be abolished. Your question offends the recent history of the world and highlights how Jewish people were victims of a horrific genocide. Educate yourself because you come across poorly with that question.

  • Would appreciate contact with the Memorial. A monument in Memorial Park, is there a museum ?

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