Randy Denham is in his 70s and well aware of what the Holocaust was about.

Yet opinion surveys consistently show many younger people often don’t know the horrors of the event.

And after almost a decade of trying to make it happen, a groundbreaking is planned at 2 p.m. on Sunday for the Murrieta Holocaust Memorial at Murrieta Town Square Park, a project intended to inform people about that awful history.

“The need for education is evident from this information and this is what the HRFV (Holocaust Remembrance Foundation of the Valley) desires to do, provide truthful education about the Holocaust and issues of antisemitism,” Denham said.

The October 2023 attacks on Israel increased the misinformation about what’s happened to Jews, he said.

More than $100,000 has been raised by the Foundation. The project is expected to cost about $400,000, said Denham, the president of the foundation’s board of directors.

It’s hoped the groundbreaking will create additional interest to raise more money for the project. A contractor has not been picked but bids will be taken soon, he said.

“This ceremony is to alert supporters that we are moving ahead and have some good momentum,” Denham said.

The goal is to have 10 information panels placed so local students could take field trips to the site by the end of 2026, he said. The panels would cover events before the Holocaust, the Holocaust itself, and Jewish history after that, including the creation of Israel.

Denham also credits the vision of Jack Flournoy, who started the foundation and came up with the idea of the education memorial. Flournoy died in 2019.

Denham cited the support of City Council members from Murrieta and Temecula, as well as Riverside County and state officials, who backed the project, and the annual March of Remembrance started in 2014.

Last year’s walk attracted 400 people, an impressive turnout. This year’s walk is planned for 2:30 p.m. on May 4 at Murrieta Mesa High School.

Southwest Riverside County has been known as a bastion for Christians and when I moved here in 1988, it was often called the Bible Belt of Southern California.

Yet Jews also have a rich history here. According to the foundation’s website, Louis Wolf, a Jewish immigrant, helped run the first store in Temecula in the mid-1800s.

The city of Lake Elsinore was once filled with kosher meat markets, hot sulfur baths and two synagogues. During the 1950s and 1960s, more than 1,000 Jewish residents practiced their faith in town, the foundation’s website reports.

The Murrieta Hot Springs resort was founded in 1902 and old postcards show a large Star of David above the building’s main entryway. It was primarily a Jewish resort, the website states.

Irv Michlin, the foundation board’s vice president, said about 25 Holocaust survivors at one time lived in the mobile homes near the resort that recently reopened.

The board is made up of Christians and Jews. Denham was a part owner of a local hospice and associate pastor at Calvary Chapel of French Valley. He has visited Israel five times, including after the attack two years ago by Hamas rebels operating out of Gaza. He saw the music festival site that was part of the carnage.

“I wanted to see it for myself, so no one could deny that it happened to me,” he said.

Unfortunate that such misinformation exists, especially about the Holocaust.

The Remembrance project is timely indeed.

Reach Carl Love at carllove4@yahoo.com.