These Holocaust Survivors Have An Important Message For The World

Nine Holocaust survivors have come together for the second year to send the world a powerful reminder to speak up against hatred.

Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls each year on Jan. 27, the nine women joined forces in a video calling on people to remember the horror of the Holocaust and to pledge to make sure such atrocities never happen again.

“Today, we plead with you again speak up and put down signs of racism, acts of hatred,” the women said in the video posted by the World Jewish Congress on Tuesday. “Show your commitment to honor the past and protect our future.”

International Holocaust Remembrance Day falls on the anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. The annual day of commemoration, established by the United Nations, honors the the 6 million Jewish people who perished during World War II.

The Holocaust survivors’ video is part of a larger social media campaign by the World Jewish Congress, an international coalition of Jewish communities and organizations. This is the second year the WJC has led the initiative, which asks supporters to post photos of themselves holding a #WeRemember sign to social media.

Contributions for 2018 were pouring in on Wednesday. The WJC aims to reach 500 million people through this year’s campaign.

“Around the world today, anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, and hatred of others continue to rear their ugly heads. We must remember because there are fewer and fewer survivors among us, and within just a few decades, all will have passed. We must remember because ‘never again’ seems to happen again and again,” WJC President, Ronald S. Lauder said in a statement. “It is now the responsibility of the younger generation to teach their friends about the horrors of hatred, and to spread the message that never again must mean never again.”

Last year, the call for contributions elicited responses from Jewish leaders and politicians, including Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin, and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). People from other faiths also participated, including Muslim leaders from Germany and France.