Credit: Phelia Barouh
Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and Chairman of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation (ABMF), led a delegation of 200 survivors to the site of the former German Nazi death camp on 27 January 2020 to mark 75 years since its liberation, and delivered a keynote address ringing the alarm bell on the rise of antisemitism, and appealing to world leaders to advance Holocaust education.
The WJC organized a number of events in Poland to mark the 75th anniversary commemoration, including a guided delegation tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau and a memorial service at Crematoria IV, Birkenau, with remarks delivered by WJC General Counsel and Associate Executive Vice President Menachem Z. Rosensaft and the El Maleh Rachamim prayer for the departed chanted by Reuven Rennert of the WJC JD Corps. The WJC also held four notable panel discussions over the course of the event.
Holocaust Denial, Distortion & Trivialization, on 26 January, featured Natasha Hausdorff of the WJC JD Corps, President of the Jewish community Zagreb and coordinator of the Jewish communities in Croatia Dr. Ognjen Kraus, Dr. Laurence Weinbaum (Executive Director of WJC Israel, Director of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations, and Chief Editor of the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs), with closing remarks by Katharina von Schnurbein, European Commission Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism.
Marking 75 Years Since The Liberation of Auschwitz | WJC Panel Discussions
WATCH | WJC Panel Discussion on Preserving Holocaust Memory
WATCH | WJC Panel Discussion on Transmission of Memory
WATCH | Mordecai Paldiel's testimony from Auschwitz-Birkenau
WATCH | Memorial Service at Crematorium IV
More content from the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz