On November 1, 2005, the UN General Assembly resolution designated January 27th as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Holocaust refers to the genocide of approximately six million European Jews that were systematically murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1941 and 1945, roughly two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population.
With antisemitism on the rise around the world, it is more important than ever that we recognize the lessons of Holocaust history. This year marks 80 years since Auschwitz’s liberation. In paying tribute to the victims and survivors, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum released a video of survivors whose silence lasted for years regarding the Holocaust. In mid-1944, Ruth Cohen, Steven Fenves, and Irene Weiss, three teenagers from Hungary, were deported in crowded freight cars to Auschwitz-Birkenau with 430,000 other Jews. Within minutes of arriving, their families were torn apart. There they suffered starvation and other barbaric abuse while surrounded by the smoke and ashes of innocent people who had been murdered by the Nazis. Here are the harrowing accounts of Ruth, Steven, and Irene, 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, and the factors that led to their survival.
January 27, 2025