“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”
– Elie Wiesel
Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD), which marks 77 years since the liberation of Auschwitz.
Since 2005, the UN and its member states have held commemoration ceremonies to mark this anniversary and to honor the six million Jews and millions of other victims of the Holocaust. We hope that you will take the opportunity to learn lessons from the Holocaust and to speak out against the antisemitism that still exists today.
In Colorado, ADL was proud to support the passage of HB20-1336, the Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Public Education Act. The Act will soon require the satisfactory completion of a course that includes Holocaust and genocide studies as a condition of high school graduation in public schools. Education for students and the public is necessary. Shockingly, a Pew survey revealed that while more than 80 percent of Americans know that the Holocaust was an attempt at the annihilation of Jews, far fewer have any idea as to how Hitler came to power and how the horrors came to pass.
Globally, the situation is even worse. ADL’s Global 100 survey found that 35 percent of those polled in 100 countries have never heard of the Holocaust. Twenty-eight percent believe that the Holocaust happened, but that the number of Jewish victims who died in it “has been greatly exaggerated by history.”
Nearly eight decades after the liberation of the largest Nazi concentration camp and extermination center, antisemitism and hate continue to flourish. Holocaust remembrance and education are critical to ensure that history never repeats. Please take time today to explore the resources we have curated below.
Scott Levin, Regional Director
ADL Mountain States Region
Resources:
- Colorado Survivors Speak Out four-minute video featuring five Colorado Holocaust Survivors
- Taking stock of Holocaust awareness for International Holocaust Remembrance Day by ADL Deputy National Director Kenneth Jacobson
- Responding to Antisemitism – An Interfaith Call to Action, online program in the wake of Colleyville
- For Colorado’s Jewish community, praying in peace means confronting antisemitism, Op-Ed in the January 23 Denver Post by ADL Regional Director Scott Levin, Rabbi Jay Strear and Rabbi Joe Black
- Lessons from a Hostage Crisis: ADL Fighting Hate From Home webinar
- Lesson plan on prewar Jewish life, featuring the stories of teenagers during the period
- Inspiring the Human Story poster series with short classroom activities
- Rachael Cerrotti’s We Share the Same Sky Podcast with companion educational resource
Educator Video Toolbox on Liberation, which features liberators’ and Jewish survivors’ testimonies and other primary sources