World leaders honor Holocaust survivors amid rising global antisemitism

Around 600 people, including international Jewish community leaders and activists, gathered on Sunday in the Polish city of Krakow at an event organized by the World Jewish Congress (WJC) ahead of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Seventeen Holocaust survivors attended the event in the city that is located merely one hour’s drive from the infamous Nazi death camp Auschwitz. The majority of the Holocaust survivors reside in Israel and the United States. Due to their advanced age, the number of Holocaust survivors is declining rapidly. In January 2022, there were fewer than 170,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel. 

WJC president Ronald Lauder praised the survivors for sharing their stories of survival and the lessons of the Holocaust. 

“None of us can know the pain that you have carried with you for the past 80 years,” Lauder told the attending Holocaust survivors. “But you stepped up to the responsibility that was thrust upon you, and for that, we are eternally grateful,” he continued. 

While the event in Krakow honored the Holocaust survivors, it also addressed the rising global antisemitism following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre of 1,200 Israeli men, women and children, the largest number of Jews killed in a single day since the Holocaust.

In addition, Hamas terrorists also kidnapped 251 people from southern Israeli border communities. 

“Many of us thought antisemitism had been extinguished forever,” Lauder said. “But now, 80 years after the war, that ages-old virus has come back to infect the world once again. That is precisely the reason why the lives of the survivors and the lessons of this terrible place are so vitally important today,” he stressed. 

Holocaust survivor Michael Bornstein noted how much the world had changed in the past five years.

“A lot has changed since I was here five years ago for the 75th anniversary,” Bornstein recalled. “Back then, there were 120 survivors in the room, and now there are 17. Five years ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was sitting right there at the center, at a table across from us. Tonight, his country is at war,” he continued. 

“Five years ago, I could have never guessed that my college-age grandchildren would see harassment and hate on their campuses. Now, they do. Five years ago, Israel was at peace. Tonight, there are still 90 hostages being held by Palestinian terrorists,” the Holocaust survivor added. 

Borenstein who grew up in the Polish town of Zarki and later moved to the United States, recalled the suffering during the Nazi occupation. 

“My memories have slipped with age, but I still remember the foul, disgusting smell of burning bodies,” he said. “I remember Nazis shouting at me in German, I remember missing my mother, I remember that I was so hungry that I stole potato skins to survive.”

Prior to the Second World War, Poland was home to some 3.3 million Jews, constituting around 10% of the country’s total population. Around 90% of the Polish Jews were murdered during the Holocaust and the majority of the survivors emigrated to Israel, the United States and other countries. 

Top Israeli and Jewish leaders usually attend the annual Auschwitz anniversary in Poland. However, this year’s anniversary has been partly overshadowed by the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) controversial arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

The Polish government initially confirmed in December that it would comply with the ICC’s instructions and arrest Netanyahu if he attended the Auschwitz event. However, earlier in January, the Polish President Andrzej Duda urged the country’s government to protect Netanyahu if he decided to attend the Auschwitz event.