Auschwitz survivors share memories to make sure world never forgets

The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany launched a new digital campaign on Monday titled "I Survived Auschwitz: Remember This," which features 80 survivors of the death camp.

As 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the camp's liberation, the Claims Conference is taking advantage of the occassion to commemorate the more than 1.1 million who were murdered at Auschwitz. As the Holocaust begins to disappear from living memory, antisemitism and racism in general is on the rise around the world, making such commemorations all the more important.

"The horrors that occurred at Auschwitz were an evil that no human should ever endure, but also an evil that no human should ever forget," said Claims Conference President Gideon Taylor. "While it is difficult to imagine oneself in a concentration camp, we can all relate to wanting people to remember loved ones we’ve lost, experiences that shaped us and moments that were important to us. It is critical that we educate future generations about Auschwitz. 'I Survived Auschwitz: Remember This' does so by connecting the generations with our shared humanity."

The 80 survivors were asked to name one specific person, moment, or experience they want generations to come to remember.

The new campaign is partially inspired by the experience of survivor Aron Krell, whose brother, Zvi, dies in the Lodz ghetto from starvation. A soccer player who was the second of the family's three boys, lack of food, hard forced labor, and lack of medical treatment emaciated Zvi. "Please never forget me," Zvi told Aron before he died.

"I lost not only Zvi, but my brother Moshe and my mother, Esther in the Holocaust," Krell said. "I survived five concentration camps and ghettos – including Auschwitz. I know many people can’t fathom what I have endured. But you can understand loving a brother like I loved Zvi, can imagine the unbearable pain that comes with losing one, and, hopefully, agree that the lessons of the Holocaust must always be remembered."

"The mother dying with her child in her arms, leading her child to death, is, for me the most terrible of the images I still see today," said Judith Hervé-Elkán, a 98-year-old now living in France. She said the image of the mothers making the ultimate sacrifice for their children is what she wants the world to remember.

"So many mothers, not knowing what awaited them, didn't let go of their children, their babies, their little ones. What is more terrible in the world than to lead your child to death."

Herta Vyšná, from Slovakia, recalls her aunt and two children, Lenka and Erika, who were taken by Dr. Josef Mengele to the gas chamber. Her mother was forced to undergo abominable expirements before she died, while her father died in Sachsenhausen camp.

"That is how I lost my parents and was orphaned at the age of thirteen," she said. "I wish for the memory of my family, who was murdered, to be preserved forever and ever."

A twin who survived Mengele's experiments, Jona Laks, said he remembered the day "when we were left alone on the death march, I vowed that I would dedicate all my energy, all my time, everything, to telling, documenting, conveying to people and telling what happened. Because it is impossible for such a dark period to disappear from people's knowledge and not enter history."

Eva Szepesi, from Germany, talked about her father, mother, and younger brother who were murdered. Szepesi was given fake papers and sent away, before the Nazis caught up to her and sent her to Auschwitz.

"At the time, I didn’t know my mother, Valerie, and my little brother, Tamas, had already been sent to Auschwitz and murdered there," she remembered. "And when I entered the gate there, they saw me from above. I didn’t think about it then. Thinking of it would have been fatal."

One of the oldest survivors, 103-year-old Ella Blumenthal, lost 23 members of her family – but she wants the world to remember that she never gave up hope. Her niece, Roma, "begged me to end our suffering by throwing ourselves onto the electrified fence because she said the only way out of Auschwitz was through the chimney," Blumenthal said. "I convinced her to wait one more day – and then again another day – because I wasn’t ready to die. I wanted to live."

In addition to those still living, numerous recordings of notable survivors such as Elie Wiesel are included in the campaign.

The Claims Conference is a nonprofit with offices around the world. It works to help survivors receive compensation, with more than $90 billion paid to victims by the German government since 1952. More than $560 million was paid out in 2023 to over 200,000 survivors. In 2024, some $535 million was secured globally in compensation.

"I Survived Auschwitz: Remember This" can be found on the Claims Conference social media channels and online here.