UTICA — During the last hours of Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Jewish Community Federation of the Mohawk Valley at 2310 Oneida St. honored the lives of Holocaust victims and survivors.

During Tuesday's Yom HaShoah commemoration, the Helen and Leon Sperling Holocaust Memorial Lecture series, named after two Holocaust survivors from Utica who shared their story to thousands of students across New York, took place, and survivor Marione Ingram was there to recount her story and to promote equal rights, tolerance and peace.

"Thoughts and prayers are not an adequate response to the Holocaust," Ingram said. "We should examine every significant aspect of history’s darkest hours and learn from that experience, and then do everything possible to prevent repetitions anywhere."

Ingram, who was born in Hamburg, Germany, to a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father, witnessed the deportation of family members and Hamburg Jews during World War II. Ingram was able to escape deportation with her mother, however, her father was imprisoned for helping Belgian Jews evade internment. Ingram has gone from victim to survivor to activist and has spent her life protesting racism, war, sexism, apartheid and police violence.

As concentration camps were liberated by American, British and Soviet forces nearly 80 years ago, the generation of Holocaust survivors is dwindling. While there is not a comprehensive database to reflect a true number of survivors, The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, an organization that negotiates and allocates reparations to Holocaust survivors, estimates that there are about 400,000 survivors today.

In addition to the guest speaker, winners of the Helen and Leon Sperling Holocaust Education Essay Contest were announced. The essay contest highlights the importance of Holocaust education for middle and high school students and making sure younger generations are informed on what is considered to be one of the darkest moments in human history.

Dominic Ambrose and Henry Daley from New Hartford, and Jaelyn Northrop, Hanley Poyer and Heidi Pryputniewicz from Waterville were all recognized by the Jewish Community Federation of the Mohawk Valley for their participation and writing.