The founder of Sheérit HaPleitah, the umbrella organization of Chicago-area Holocaust survivors groups, died this week.

Leo Frank was a Texas-born, New York-raised Jew, a Cornell University graduate who left for Atlanta in 1908 to manage his uncle’s pencil factory. There, a few years later, he met and married Lucille Selig, who hailed from a well-established German Jewish Southern family—a far cry from Frank’s own roots.

The words "never forget" rang throughout Illinois this past week as the Jewish community held observances honoring Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.