NEW YORK – To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Friday, Jan. 27, social media users, businesses, leading institutions and sport clubs around the globe are amplifying the slogan #WeRemember to preserve the lessons of the past. The World Jewish Congress campaign, carried out in partnership with UNESCO, kicked off last Friday and runs through this weekend.
Video messages from survivors worldwide form the core of the social media campaign. Numerous physical displays of remembrance around the globe also are central to the effort.
“Antisemitism around the globe continues to surge as the number of Holocaust survivors, the last living witnesses to the atrocities of World War II, continues to diminish,” said WJC President Ronald S. Lauder, in describing the significance of these collective acts of remembrance. “This is why the World Jewish Congress’ #WeRemember campaign has taken on increased importance. All of us share the responsibility to preserve the memory of the victims and ensure that the past is never forgotten.”
At the Reichstag building in Berlin, the site of Hitler’s rise to political prominence and which today houses Germany’s parliament, a large display bears the campaign slogan #WeRemember. Prominent Bundesliga football clubs such as FC Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund are elevating the WJC-UNESCO initiative elsewhere across Germany.
In Israel, images of Holocaust survivors illuminate the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, and in Tel Aviv, the skyscrapers of Azrieli Center brightened the skies with the campaign’s message. The national airline El Al is sharing Holocaust-related resources via QR codes with its passengers in connection with the #WeRemember initiative.
In New York City, home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel, Mayor Eric Adams has called for City Hall and other buildings to be lit up in yellow, and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine will hold a press conference today to call for the removal of plaques that are part of the Canyon of Heroes and that honor Nazi collaborators. Digital display boards throughout the city showcase facts about the Holocaust, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is to illuminate both the George Washington Bridge and One World Trade Center.
Additional displays will appear across Canada, Latin America and European capitals that include Athens, Stockholm, Prague and Zagreb. A remembrance ceremony will take place at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, together with the World Jewish Congress.
Also a key goal of the campaign: Educating people worldwide about the danger of allowing hatred and antisemitism to thrive unchecked. As such, the World Jewish Congress has worked with Meta and TikTok to ensure that users see factual information about the Holocaust by directing them to AboutHolocaust.org, a comprehensive resource developed by WJC and UNESCO.
The campaign culminates with the screening of images at the site of the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, which today is the site of a memorial and museum.
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