On January 27th, 1945, Allied forces liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp. Since 2005, we celebrate this day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is a day to honor those who endured the horrors of the Holocaust and remember the victims who perished at the hands of the Nazis.

In the days leading up to the liberation, the SS attempted to evacuate Auschwitz prisoners to nearby satellite camps. Of the 60,000 Jews forced into these death marches, more than 15,000 died. Meanwhile, the Soviet Army entered Auschwitz and liberated the remaining prisoners who were too sick or frail to be moved. Among those liberated was Victor Frankl, who would later detail his experiences in Man’s Search for Meaning, a classic memoir of the Holocaust.

Read about the liberation of Auschwitz

Read more about the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps

We recommend watching a video of a speech by Dana Bell. Ms. Bell is the mother of CDJHM board member Gay Griffith. In the video, Bell shares her memories of being a child in Poland when Hitler invaded. This speech was presented to the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem’s National Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony on April 28, 2015.

In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yetta Fox and her daughter Jennifer Price read the Mourner’s Kaddish for the 6 million Jews who died during the Holocaust and the many others who suffered. Ms. Fox and Ms. Price are 2nd and 3rd generation Holocaust survivors from Clifton Park, New York.