By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER EAST SIDE — Dozens of Holocaust survivors, their families and Jewish community leaders gathered to observe the Annual Remembrance Day at Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue Sunday.
Sen. Chuck Schumer credited survivors with bringing the painful realitites of the Holocaust and ethnic cleansing into the public consciousness at the service Sunday.
"Nothing is a greater testament to the survival of our people," Schumer said of the Nuremberg and Adolf Eichmann trials, which brought the perpetrators of the genocide to justice.
"No matter how they try to afflict us, we will prevail, we will survive," he said.
Family members escorted a group of 36 survivors as they lit candles in remembrance of the 6 million Jews who were murdered by the Nazis.
Actor Ron Rifkin, a Tony-Award winner and star of ABC's "Brothers and Sisters", narrated the histories of six of the Holocaust survivors in attendance as they lit memorial candles.
"I certainly remember that, in Auschwitz, a moment felt a like a day, a day - a year, and a year - an eternity," said Roman Kent, a survivor of the concentration camp.
"We must never forget what happens when hatred is allowed to triumph," Kent said.