Apr 23, 2019
Messages from Holocaust Survivors
Since the Museum opened, survivor volunteers have been recounting their personal experiences to audiences within and outside our walls (watch their live and recorded interviews). By sharing their memories with more than 1.5 million people, Holocaust survivors demonstrate their commitment to teaching new generations that the future can be better than the past. These messages from survivors serve as a warning and an inspiration.
A survivor fears he or she may be the last to remember, the last to warn, the last to tell the tale that must be told in its totality, before it is too late.
— Elie Wiesel
On education and civic engagement
Educate yourself. It’s very important. I’m going to suffer all my life because they took that from me when I was 14 years old. You have the possibility. And I have hope in you….
— Anna Grosz
It’s very important to teach people about what happened so that it won’t happen again. And the reason why it happened was basically hatred.
— Albert Garih
Watch the news, read the newspapers, make sure that you know what is real and not real. Then you can organize and do something about it and not be silent.
— Louise Lawrence-Israëls
Learn about your country and the issues troubling it. If you want democracy to thrive, know your rights and use them judiciously. And more importantly, vote.
— Michel Margosis
On personal responsibility
It is possible, even when surrounded by things that are wrong and evil, it’s still possible to do what is right. That is the most important message that I want to leave with you.
— Alfred Münzer
Be involved in your community so that you know what goes on and that you can be a leader in bringing people together. And make sure that you don’t stand by when you see hatred or bigotry.
— Margit Meissner
What we can do is help one person, two people. And if we all do things in a small way, it will improve the world in a big way.
— Esther Starobin
Don’t be a bystander. When someone’s house is on fire, what do you do? You try to save everybody. You call the fire department. When something happens to somebody, don’t just let it go and think, “It has nothing to do with me,” which many people did [during the Holocaust]. It always has something to do with you.
— Martin Weiss
I am often asked what I have learned from my experience. My answer is always the same: Don’t do to others what you don’t want done to yourself. And do it now. Pay that visit. Make that call. Write that letter. If you have a dream, go after it now.
— Fritz Gluckstein
On hate
I feel that it’s up to me to let people like yourselves know what inhumanity the human mind can produce and how easy it is to move from prejudice, discrimination against anybody to more and more oppressive levels of separation, leading up to genocide and the Holocaust.
— Steven Fenves
I couldn’t imagine why I was hated because I was Jewish. We lived a quiet life observing the rules of the country; we didn’t do anybody any harm, and created so much hate against us. Almost 11 million people lost their lives. About 6 million of them were Jews. For no apparent reason, because hate was instilled against them.
— Rachel Goldfarb
My hope is that with the benefit of history and memory, we will all be able to recognize and resist the forces of hatred, prejudice, and division that exist in our own time. By speaking about those painful times, I am doing my best to honor the memory of those who did not survive to tell their own story. And I also hope that I’m keeping a promise of Never Again.
— Irene Weiss
On speaking out
Whenever you see any injustices done to any human being, speak out. If you can’t do it yourself, get some help. Get your parents, school teacher, principal, rabbi, or priest to help you, but don’t leave that person unattended.
— Henry Greenbaum
Many people in many countries kept silent about what happened in the Holocaust. We need to speak out. It’s our duty and our responsibility to humanity, for all of us, to speak out so atrocities like this will never happen again.
— Nat Shaffir
When you see injustice, you see people inflicting pain on other people, you’ve got to say something. You can really make a big difference. That’s why I’m here. People took a chance and they spoke out and they helped.
— Josiane Traum
On denial
There are people who claim that the Holocaust is a hoax, that it never happened…. I am a witness that it did happen. By listening to the stories of my childhood, you become witnesses also.
— Marcel Drimer
As long as there are people who say that the Holocaust did not happen, in some ways Majdanek and Auschwitz are still with us. I am so grateful for this wonderful museum because it proves that history always remembers and we must listen if civilization is to progress.
— Estelle Laughlin
On hope for the future
All the people who are survivors will be gone in a short time. So who’s going to take over? Who’s going to be the one who spreads my story, any survivor’s story? It’s you. We are totally, utterly dependent on you.
— Bob Behr
I’m alive today because of good people who stood up to evil. That is why I still have much hope in the human race.
— Fred Kahn
Here we are gathered to remember those who lost their lives through prejudice and hatred and to honor those who — often at their own peril — sheltered others, and that gives me hope. It helps me to continue believing that understanding, tolerance, and compassion can and will prevail.
— Dora Klayman
I’m old, so I can only talk about the past, but the future belongs to the young people. And there’s always time to repair the world.
— Halina Peabody
This article was first published in Summer 2018.
