80 Years Of Remembrance: On January 27th, 1945, The Nazi Concentration Camp Of Auschwitz Was Liberated By The Soviet Red Army

Adolf Hitler believed that eradicating Jews from the world would make it a better place, enforcing a monstrous ideology on the minds of influenceable men. Thousands blindly followed this narcissistic leader into discarding all human values, and unapologetically unleashed hell upon millions.

Jewish men, women, and children were deported from their homes by their very own neighbors. Transported by the hundreds on trains, the innocent victims made their way to an inevitable doom – the Holocaust.

Among the major camps were Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz, which was divided into three sections:

Auschwitz I – the beginning of the end: Jewish prisoners were separated from their loved ones upon arrival, forming groups by age and sex. There, the victims were given a striped prison uniform, their heads were shaved, and their arms were tattooed with numbers – replacing all traces of real identity.

Auschwitz II Birkenau – an Extermination Camp where families were tortured and then wiped out completely. Most of the prisoners were executed in gas chambers.

Auschwitz III Monowitz – a Labor Camp in which Jews were forced to work until abuse, exhaustion, or starvation claimed their lives.

Over a million Jews were executed in Auschwitz between 1942 and 1944; very few survived to tell their stories.

80 years ago, antisemitism led to the greatest genocide of all time, resulting in the deaths of some six million Jews - a historical tragedy which impacted the fate of an entire people forever.

80 years later, antisemitism is still very much present and felt across the globe. Although Jewish people have tried assimilating, and are accepted in many countries, the insecurity is permanent; the fear of being targeted remains.

The one place Jewish communities feel at home is the State of Israel. Every year, thousands of people move to the only democratic country in the Middle East in hopes of finding the exact same thing our ancestors were deprived of 80 years ago: the right to live freely and authentically in this world.

As we commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we mourn the lives of those who were brutally murdered and those who never saw the light of day. Entire generations were erased, binding the Jews of today to never forget what was, and what could have been.

Never Again.

Naomi Levy, GPO (Government Press Office)