The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City hosted what it called the largest gathering of Holocaust survivors in the country on Monday, with more than 200 in attendance at an event commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The day marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in occupied Poland by Allied troops, and comes as the population of Holocaust survivors around the world dwindles.
“Hate is like a disease. It starts with one group and spreads to another group,” said Auschwitz survivor Alice Ginsburg, who was 13 years old when she was separated from her mother and sister at the notorious death camp, and never saw them again. “We have to eliminate hate by speaking against injustice.”
“This was 80 years ago, and it still pains you,” she said through tears. “I mean, life continues. But certain things stay in your heart forever.”
Selfhelp Community Services, a nonprofit that provides care for Holocaust survivors in the New York area, organized several buses to bring groups of survivors to the museum from Brooklyn, as well as private cars and escorts for others around the city. Since many of the remaining survivors are now over 90 years old, coordinating a large-scale gathering with them is challenging, said Hanan Simhon, Selfhelp’s vice president of survivor programming.
“The time we have available left with the actual witnesses of the Holocaust is getting smaller and smaller,” Simhon said. “An event like this is really powerful and important not only to them, but it should be to the rest of the community, because this is not going to happen too often again.”
Holocaust survivors watch the livestream from the Auschwitz site in Poland at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on Jan. 27, 2025.
The event began with a livestream of the liberation ceremony at the Auschwitz site. The Lower Manhattan museum then debuted a new exhibit called “Survivor Stories,” which allows visitors to interact with pre-recorded videos of 10 survivors, and answer questions with help from non-generative artificial intelligence technology.
Toby Levy is one of the survivors who appears on a screen to share memories of how she and her family hid in a barn with eight other relatives to avoid capture by the Nazis. The 91-year-old told Gothamist her son first approached her about the opportunity to participate in the exhibit.
“I'm very, very proud of being part of creating it and being part of it,” Levy said while watching the virtual version of herself answer visitors’ queries. “I'm scared [that] when I am gone, all the deniers will come up to say it never happened. Well, we have live witnesses forever now.”
Toby Levy, 91, watches herself in a new exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on Jan. 27, 2025.
Jack Kliger, president and CEO of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, said the exhibit’s goal is to preserve Holocaust survivors’ stories “even when they're no longer able to speak for themselves.” He said many survivors are more committed than ever to sharing their stories and teaching younger people about their experiences — especially with a global rise in antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and the war in Gaza.
But as Holocaust survivors get older, Kliger said capturing those memories and life lessons for future generations feels like a “race against time.”
“ We have to look at a post-survivor world and what will happen then,” he said. “And so we're trying to prepare as rapidly and as strongly as possible.”
Though New York is among the states where Holocaust education is mandated in schools, a 2020 study found that 34% of Millennial and Gen Z New Yorkers believed the Holocaust was a myth or exaggerated, according to City Councilmember Julie Menin, who spoke at the exhibit’s unveiling.
“This is totally unacceptable and dangerous,” said Menin, a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors who represents parts of Midtown East and the Upper East Side. “These startling statistics prove that you cannot just learn about the Holocaust from reading about it in a book, you must visit and see the horrors and hear the stories firsthand. And that is why this exhibit is so incredibly meaningful.”
Municipal buildings including City Hall will be lit in yellow on Monday night to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Mayor Eric Adams’ office said. The Center for Jewish History near Union Square is hosting an exhibit on teenage diarist Anne Frank, featuring a replica of the Amsterdam annex where she and others lived hidden for two years during World War II before they were discovered and sent to concentration camps.
“It is a time to remember the 6 million who were killed,” said Simhon from Selfhelp, “all of whom were these people’s family members and relatives, and to honor the resilience and bravery of the survivors themselves, and to remind the world that the Holocaust was an important and critical part of history.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
