On Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, Judy Cohen, former Chief Acquisition Curator at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, presented at the third annual Edward D. and Rechnic Holocaust Series at the Performance Center. The oral presentation commemorated the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
On Jan. 27, 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated Auschwitz. According to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, “About 7,000 prisoners awaited liberation in the Main Camp, Birkenau, and Monowitz. Before and shortly after Jan. 27, Soviet soldiers liberated about 500 prisoners in the Auschwitz sub-camps in Stara Kuźnia, Blachownia Śląska, Świętochłowice, Wesoła, Libiąż, Jawiszowice and Jaworzno.” These prisoners were taken to hospitals by the Soviet Red Army, where thousands of doctors treated them in non-Nazi-occupied areas of Europe.
Auschwitz was one of the largest concentration camps during the Holocaust. According to the Memorial and Museum, 1.1 million people, including about 200,000 children and young people, were killed in the gas chambers.
On Jan. 27, 2025, let us remember those who lost their lives, the survivors and the few who can still vividly recall the Holocaust, as well as the soldiers, doctors and nurses who played vital roles in the liberation and care of the survivors.