Holocaust Education Is Our Responsibility More Than Ever!
Not long ago, Eva Schloss passed away. To most people, the name will mean absolutely nothing, and yet, her passing is extremely significant. At age 96, she was one of the most prominent voices who survived the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp. By marriage, she became Anne Frank stepsister. After the war, she settled in London, got married and kept quiet about her ordeal in the camps for four decades. Eventually, she decided to speak up and spent the rest of her life as an advocate against hatred and antisemitism.
It is almost impossible to assess how many Holocaust survivors are still alive today, but a baby born in 1939 would be 87 years old in 2026. Anyone who survived the Holocaust and is still alive today is 90-years old or older, making the pool of first-hand witnesses extremely small, and getting smaller each day. There are possibly 196,000 survivors globally, but due to their advanced age, 90% of them will be gone within the next decade. Then what? Who will carry the flame of Holocaust memory and education in our world plagued by the high wind of revisionism and Holocaust denial? Revisionism is a very quiet beast.
The tiny flame of Holocaust memory cannot be extinguished, ever! Yet, it faces multiple gusts of wind from many sources. Some will argue that we speak too much of it, but the same people will also wonder why there is so much Holocaust distortion.
Having lost my maternal grandfather in Auschwitz in 1942, it has become my duty to make sure that my family and people within my immediate sphere of influence know the story with as many details but without exaggeration. My grandfather Maurice Weinzveig was silenced in the gas chambers of Auschwitz but His memory with live on. Every victim of the Nazis was a grandfather, a father, a son or a brother. We all have a part to play in making sure the world NEVER FORGETS!
Every year on January 27, the world commemorates International Holocaust Memorial Day (IHMD was initiated by the United Nations in 2005.) The date coincides with the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Allies and it is different from the Spring date reserved for Yom HaShoah Memorial Day in Israel.
In our day and age, our worse enemies like online antisemite Nick Fuentes compare the Jews to cookies going into ovens. Others say the Shoah (the catastrophe) never happened or was just exaggerated as propaganda for the Jews to start the State of Israel. Even within our friends and within the evangelical church, there are people who think that six million was too high a number. I lost my grandfather, murdered in Auschwitz. If you ask me...One was too high a number!
It is on all of us to keep the flame going and there are different ways to do so:
Listen/watch to the stories: If you can sit through a live testimony of one of the few survivors, do it. There is nothing like the first-hand account of any event. Many of theses stories have been recorded. The next best thing is to watch a story online. Once people arrived at a camp, they were stripped of everything they owned, shaved and given a camp uniform. Then they were tattooed a number on their arm and that became who they were...Just a number. By listening to a person retell their story, we don't only preserve their memory, but we also preserve their dignity.
There are so many to chose from. Here are just a few to select from and watch with your family:
Helen Zelikovich Rieder -Czekoslovakia
Jean Weinstock Lazinger, Poland
Gene Klein, Germany
Zofia Galler, Poland
Eva Mozes Kor, Romania
Three Survivors Remember Auschwitz
Read about the Holocaust: The next best thing is a book to learn about what people went through in the camps. Some of these stories can be more graphic than others, so reader's discretion is advised. These books can also be read and discussed as a group or Bible Study over several weeks.
Night by Elie Wiesel
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal
The War Against the Jews by Lucy Dawidowicz
The Destruction of European Jews by Raul Hilberg
Visit a Holocaust Memorial or Museum: There are many Holocausts memorials and museums spread out over the world. Check where you live to see if there is one near you. Most of them also have extensive website that you can visit, navigate and learn from all year long, as they constantly curate different exhibits. It is also from these reputable sites that you can do research and even find out about a specific victim or survivor. So far, Yad Vashem has compiled the names of 4.8MM Holocaust victims out of the 6MM.
Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center
Join the YadVashem IRemember Wall
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The Simon Wiesenthal Center
If you still think that the responsibility rests on the shoulders of others, but not yours, consider a few stats.
In 2020, the Pew Research Center conducted a thorough survey on the Holocaust and related topics. The results were sobering and they remain the very reason why we should not be silent. At the end, not surprisingly, more Holocaust knowledge was tied to warmer feeling about the Jews.
18% of Americans do not know when the Holocaust took place.
29% of Americans could not say how many Jews died during the Holocaust.
38% of respondents didn't know that Holocaust had to do with the killing of Jews
26% of responders didn't know what a ghetto was.
Additionally, from the The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, more concerning stats emerged in 2025:
48% of Americans could not name a single concentration camp.
20% of French adults said that they had never heard of the Holocaust before the survey.
53% of Romanian adults believe that Holocaust death toll was grossly exaggerated.
We are only 80 years from the Holocaust. Between its memory being eroded by virtue of the passing of the survivors and its accurate account being revised by those who hate the Jews, we run the risk of two catastrophes soon colliding in front of us. First, the complete eradication of one of the most defining historical events in human history. Second, a blindness about the next Holocaust on the horizon.
If we search deep in the recesses of the human heart, all of us are capable of the worst crimes against our fellow men, because we have free choice. By God's grace, some of us will make a difference and will speak out, stand up and remember the past. The flame cannot be extinguished, so, will you help me protect it for the sake of Israel and for the love of God?
I heard Eva speak in person once. She was amazing. Maybe ten years ago. I too, lost family in the holocaust. I was a friend of Vera Schlaam, who survived at least two camps. I am so glad that she is safely with our Lord now and not seeing the return of antisemitism. Thank you Olivier, for saying truth always.
I remember my mother telling us what she had heard about the holocaust, and I've always had sympathy with the Jews. After studying the Bible for several years, I also have a great interest and concern for Israel and her people. All the anti-semitism going on now and the feeble response from our legislators makes me sick.
Thank you for all you do, Oliver.
I read every story I find and will also get the stories you listed.
My husband and I had visited the Candles museum in Terre Haute Ind many years ago. We met Eva Kors and her husband took us on a tour. When he told us about the liberation day,we cried along with him. My great grandparents were German and had left and came to America in protest of what was going on there. I have read many books about the camps and am so grieved by what went on.I pray for the peace of Israel. Come quickly Lord Jesus.
Have you heard of Leon and Ester Rytz, from Poland, and later Sweden? They both survived the Holocaust and were living in Sweden as teenagers, after the war. They met in Sweden. They married and had great success and raised a beautiful family. In their later years they began to speak publicly (especially Leon) about their extremely painful experiences and were interviewed on film. A book was written about Leon, which was published about 8- 10 years ago, in Swedish. I’m hoping it’s translated to English. I will try to find out. I stayed at their home in 1979, I was an exchange student (from the USA)and they volunteerd to be my “host” family for 6 months.Their daughter was about my age. .I remember them well. They were very kind hearted and strong. They had built an amazing life in Sweden and in Israel.