On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, this 92-year-old survivor said it was a special occasion but gloomy for him.
“It’s a kind of celebration and the fact that those of us who survived managed to make a pretty good life and move on,” Ben Lesser told CBS News in a Zoom video call on Wednesday.
“But, of course, we can’t forget our departed loved ones,” he said.
Wednesday marked the 76th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp. Lesser was familiar with the atrocities there.
He said he survived the labor camps and deaths in Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau, Poland, two death marches and the infamous Dachau death train – where dozens of train cars carried the bodies of thousands of prisoners to Dachau near the end of the war. WWII. . Lesser is believed to be his last known survivor.
During attack on the US Chapter on January 6, some rebels wore Camp Auschwitz sweatshirt and supporting the white supremacist signs.
“It gave me a taste of the past when I was young,” he told CBS News, reflecting on the Capitol assault.
Recent images – combined with years of growing anti-Semitic attacks – does not make Lesser “happy with the current state of events”. However, Lesser, the founder of the Zachor Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, has dedicated his time to helping future generations understand the scale of the Holocaust as a way to combat hatred. He often holds talks in Germany and has even developed a curriculum for schools.
“I tell people that education is very important, because only if you are truly informed can you realize that we are all the same,” he said. “Everyone is part of humanity. God created us all. So why can’t we live side by side and appreciate our differences, rather than hate them? ”
“Hitler and the Nazis did not start killing,” he said. “It all started with hatred.”
A study revealed in 2020 they showed more than 60% of Generation Z respondents and did not know that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Although Lesser acknowledged that there can always be anti-Semitism in the United States, he said his biggest concern is “what will happen after the disappearance of the survivors?”
“Who will talk and teach these children to let future generations know that there was a Holocaust and how it happened and how bad it was,” he said.
“When I see that, when most kids don’t even know what the word Holocaust means, it bothers me,” he said. “And that needs to change. So we’re doing our best to try to change that.”