Holocaust survivors are sharing their personal stories as part of a new digital campaign launched by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) ahead of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
The campaign, titled “I Survived Auschwitz: Remember This,” will feature video testimonials published on social media and on the Claims Conference website.
More than 80 Holocaust survivors contributed and spoke about their traumatic experiences in the German Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Some survivors reflect on lost loved ones, while others talk about the Jewish communities devastated by the Holocaust in the cities where they once lived.
“The horrors that occurred at Auschwitz were an evil that no human being should ever have to endure, but also an evil that no human being should ever have to forget,” Gideon Taylor, president of the Claims Conference, said in a statement released Monday.
“Although it is difficult to imagine being in a concentration camp, we can all relate to wanting people to commemorate loved ones we have lost, experiences that shaped us and moments that were important to us. It is crucial that we educate future generations about Auschwitz,” Taylor said.
On January 27, 1945, Soviet forces liberated the Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, located in present-day Oświęcim, Poland.
The Nazis had murdered more than 1 million people there, mainly Jews.
Since 1996, this date has been celebrated in Germany as Holocaust Memorial Day and in 2005 the United Nations declared it an International Day of Remembrance.