Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Sec. of Homeland Security, observed International Holocaust Remembrance Day Jan. 27 with an acknowledgement of the global commemoration and a personal connection.

Mayorkas, in a statement released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said Holocaust Remembrance Day is when the U.S. and countries worldwide commemorate the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and honor the six million Jewish victims and millions of other victims of Nazism. Mayorkas also noted his own family's connection to the Holocaust.

"This day is of great personal importance," Mayorkas stated. "While my mother escaped the Holocaust with her parents, most of her family did not.  

"Her experience with such tragedy shaped my upbringing and my understanding of the fragility of life, the human capacity for cruelty and for beneficence, the resilience of the human spirit, and the meaning of refuge," Mayorkas said in the statement.

The secretary spoke on this year's Holocaust Remembrance Day theme, "home and belonging," and of how Holocaust victims had not only their homes but their sense of belonging stolen from them. 

"Those who survived found refuge," Mayorkas said in his remarks, "a new home, a new place to belong – from which they could build a new life, hold dear and everlasting the memory of those lost, and create a better world for others."

Mayorkas said Holocaust Remembrance day is "of great importance to our nation," because of increased instances of acts of hate, "some of which have caused great tragedy."

"When an act of hate is committed against one, it affects us all," Mayorkas said.  That is the definition of a community of people, which is what and who we are.  

"On this day of remembrance, let us think of the meaning of home and belonging, draw upon our proudest traditions, and build a greater refuge of tolerance and understanding," Mayorkas said.