Reflecting on History and Remembering Victims on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

January 27th marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day in 1945, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp, was liberated.

The Remembrance Day is a day to commemorate the 6 million Jewish lives that were lost at the hands of the Nazi German regime, and the millions of other Europeans the Nazis saw as racially inferior. This included Soviet prisoners of war, Roma and Sinti populations, people with disabilities, and Polish people.

But this commemoration of 78 years since the end of World War II can’t be separated from the fact that recently some high profile celebrities and politicians have made antisemitic remarks, and there’s been a rising trend of harassment, vandalism and violence directed against Jews.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, Antisemitic incidents reached an all-time high in the US in 2021.

We hear from Toby Levy, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor, and Jack Kliger, the President & CEO of the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust about rising antisemitism and the importance of reflecting on history and remembering victims and survivors.

Then, we hear from Mattie Kahn, writer and author of the forthcoming book, Young and Restless, about the story of her great uncle Arthur Kahn, the first Jewish victim of the Holocaust