Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking 80 years since the atrocities of World War Two.

In Kentucky, teachers an art curators, are engaging students and art goers with the events that killed millions of Jewish people and Europe.

Our June Lefler has more.

At a meeting of Kentucky's anti-Semitism Task Force.

Performance groups explain their work, remembering the lives lost and traumatized during the Holocaust.

That includes the Louisville Ballet.

We actually have a social worker that is working with our dancers post-event because they're really putting their entire not only learning the steps, but emotionally living the roles.

This weekend, the Louisville Ballet will perform a piece based on the life of a Holocaust survivor created by a Kentucky native.

Louisville's art scene has a number of serendipitous connections to the Holocaust.

The first ballet ever to be based on stories of the Holocaust was performed in Louisville.

A Jewish woman from Ashland, Kentucky, made it happen in 1995.

My first assignment when I was a young professional at the Jewish Federation, was to work with Minx Auerbach.

As she came, she came to my boss, Allen Engle, at the time and said, I have this fabulous idea.

She had met Domi that the choreographer is a writer in Israel and wanted to bring this production for the first time to Louisville.

And I just remember being in the room with Minx.

I knew she could do it.

I maybe had been with her for 15 minutes and I knew that she was passionate.

Another hometown connection Paul Kling, a first chair violinist at the Louisville Orchestra and a Holocaust survivor to honor him this past weekend.

The Louisville Orchestra performed an opera written by Jewish artists at a concentration camp during World War Two.

Kling was part of that original ensemble.

And Paul Klee.

Wow.

As his name sat in the chair, that now our closet master is sitting in.

Gabe Lefkowitz, who was playing the part that Paul Kling played.

Interesting style.

So if you talk about a connection to reality and a history that's needed for people to understand why this subject matter is important, relevant today, we're demonstrating that beyond Louisville.

Western Kentucky University is home to murals remembering the Holocaust.

Just across the river in Cincinnati is the Holocaust and Humanities Center in Lexington.

A Jewish artist teaches in local schools with help from the National Endowment for the Arts.

And look at all of these opportunities for creatives really are coming up with special ways to teach, to remember, and most importantly, to remind ourselves when people don't act with kindness first and don't have generosity, that they lose sight of humanity.

And that's the biggest takeaway of the story of the Holocaust.

Middle and high schoolers across Kentucky learned about the Holocaust in 2018.

Kentucky lawmakers mandated that schools teach it and other instances of genocide.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Jean Lefler.

Thank you, Jim, for that report.

A complete list of Louisville arts events tied to the Holocaust is available at Louisville, remembers Dawg and Lexington, a Holocaust survivor, will speak this Thursday evening at Duke's Jewish Student Center.