Can we keep the memory fresh? Today is Holocaust Memorial Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. But as survivors die of old age, memories are starting to fade.
Holocaust survivors warn of forgetting
Can we keep the memory fresh? Today is Holocaust Memorial Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. But as survivors die of old age, memories are starting to fade.
On 27 January 1945, the Red ArmyOver four million German soldiers were killed fighting the Soviet Army between 1941 and 1945. Russian casualties are estimated at close to 11 million. stormed Auschwitz, in southern Poland. What they discovered horrified even the battle hardened soldiers of the Soviet UnionOfficially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). A powerful group of communist republics, the biggest being Russia, that existed from 1922 to 1991. .
They found a complex of 40 concentration campsA large prison for people held without legal justification, such as political prisoners or persecuted minorities. The first concentration camps were built by British colonial rulers in South Africa, but the term is most associated with Nazi camps, some of which were used to execute Jewish and other inmates as well as to imprison them. run by Nazi GermanyThe German state between 1933 and 1945, when it was ruled by Adolf Hitler's Nazi party.. There were around 7,000 survivors, many on the verge of death. There were hundreds of corpses. And there were gas chambers that had killed 1.1 million people.1
Auschwitz was the largest of a network of camps across Germany and its occupied territories. Between 1941 and 1945, the Nazis murdered six million people in such places.2 The majority of victims were JewishRelating or belonging to the religion of Judaism. , although they also targeted non-Jewish Poles, RomaniA highly mobile ethnic group predominantly found in Southern and Eastern Europe. and prisoners of war.
After Nazi Germany was defeated in World War Two, the Holocaust became the ultimate symbol of human evil. Monuments were erected, memoirs were written and museums opened.
Many believe it is important to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive. As Historian and survivor Marian Turski says: "Don't be indifferent when the past is manipulated for the sake of current political interests. Don't be indifferent when any minority is discriminated against."
Yet there are signs that the Holocaust is now fading from view. A 2018 study found that 41% of Americans - and 66% of millennialsPeople who reached adulthood in the early 21st Century. - did not know about Auschwitz.3
This is partially because of the passing of time: all events become more distant. But it is also because of the dwindling number of survivors. There are now only around 220,000 left. The very youngest are 80 years old.
There will soon be no living survivors at all. How can we keep the memory alive without survivors?
Art offers one solution. Artists such as the Austrian Romani Cheija Stojka and the German Jewish Charlotte Salomon put their experience of the Holocaust into paintings.
There are many powerful first-hand accounts in literature. Psychotherapist Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning (1946) explores the everyday mindset of a prisoner. Chemist Primo Levi's If This Is a Man (1947) depicts his time in Auschwitz in a gentle, humane style.
The Holocaust has been powerfully captured on film. Alain Resnais' devastating 30-minute-long Night and Fog (1956) mixes interviews with footage from the camps. Claude Lanzmann's Shoah (1985) is clear-eyed, nine-and-a-half-hour look at the suffering of Polish Jews.
More recently, Jesse Eisenberg's sharp comedy A Real Pain (2024) follows two Jewish-American cousins on a Holocaust tour of Poland. It examines how survivors' descendants process their family history.
There are many museums. Anne FrankA Jewish girl who kept a diary during World War Two while hiding from the Nazis. 's House in Amsterdam explores the life of a young girl who hid from the Nazis. Several camps are open for visitors. Over 1.67 million people visited Auschwitz last year.
In Berlin the pavements are speckled with stumbling stones. These are little brass plates that give the name and dates of victims, outside buildings where they lived. The city itself has become a monument to the Holocaust. Their presence keeps it in our mind as we walk around.
Can we keep the memory fresh?
Yes: The horror of the Holocaust is such that it will never be forgotten. The recent success of films like A Real Pain and the award-winning Zone of Interest show that it continues to haunt us today.
No: It is important to remember the Holocaust so that it never happens again. But as survivors die and new events take place, it will inevitably leave living memory and pass into the history books.
Or... Millions see the Holocaust as the ultimate evil. But still terrible things happen across the globe, including genocide. Remembering one unspeakable tragedy does not seem to prevent numerous others from happening.
Red Army - Over four million German soldiers were killed fighting the Soviet Army between 1941 and 1945. Russian casualties are estimated at close to 11 million.
Soviet Union - Officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). A powerful group of communist republics, the biggest being Russia, that existed from 1922 to 1991.
Concentration camps - A large prison for people held without legal justification, such as political prisoners or persecuted minorities. The first concentration camps were built by British colonial rulers in South Africa, but the term is most associated with Nazi camps, some of which were used to execute Jewish and other inmates as well as to imprison them.
Nazi Germany - The German state between 1933 and 1945, when it was ruled by Adolf Hitler's Nazi party.
Jewish - Relating or belonging to the religion of Judaism.
Romani - A highly mobile ethnic group predominantly found in Southern and Eastern Europe.
Millennials - People who reached adulthood in the early 21st Century.
Anne Frank - A Jewish girl who kept a diary during World War Two while hiding from the Nazis.
Holocaust survivors warn of forgetting

Glossary
Red Army - Over four million German soldiers were killed fighting the Soviet Army between 1941 and 1945. Russian casualties are estimated at close to 11 million.
Soviet Union - Officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). A powerful group of communist republics, the biggest being Russia, that existed from 1922 to 1991.
Concentration camps - A large prison for people held without legal justification, such as political prisoners or persecuted minorities. The first concentration camps were built by British colonial rulers in South Africa, but the term is most associated with Nazi camps, some of which were used to execute Jewish and other inmates as well as to imprison them.
Nazi Germany - The German state between 1933 and 1945, when it was ruled by Adolf Hitler's Nazi party.
Jewish - Relating or belonging to the religion of Judaism.
Romani - A highly mobile ethnic group predominantly found in Southern and Eastern Europe.
Millennials - People who reached adulthood in the early 21st Century.
Anne Frank - A Jewish girl who kept a diary during World War Two while hiding from the Nazis.