On Monday, January 27 Stockton University led a study tour to the United Nations headquarters in New York City to attend the United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Day Ceremony. Halfway into their journey to New York, the bus made a stop to pick up author and Holocaust survivor, Maud Dahme. Dahme and her sister Rita were taken in and hidden from the Nazis by various Christian families, and she details their incredible story of survival at the hands of strangers in her memoir, “Chocolate, The Taste of Freedom.” Those fortunate enough to be on the bus heard her account firsthand – an incredibly moving experience, especially on the 80^th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

The ceremony took place in the United Nations General Assembly Hall, led by Melissa Fleming, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications. The speakers included the United Nations Secretary-General, His Excellency Antonio Guterres, President of the 79^th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, His Excellency, Mr. Philemon Yang; President of the State of Israel, Mr. Isaac Herzog; and Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, His Excellency Mr. Vassily A. Nebenzia.

His Excellency Mr. Philemon Yang made an impassioned speech, stating “We must never forget that the Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers; it began in the minds of people, fueled by hate speech, propaganda, and systemic discrimination.”

His Excellency, Mr. Vassily A. Nebenzia, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the U.N., made a political speech filled with complaints regarding the “erasure of the Soviet effort” to liberate the camps and lamented the absence of an invitation to Russia to attend the ceremony at Auschwitz, rather than commemorate the victims of the Holocaust.

Several Holocaust survivors told their stories. Roma survivor Dumitru Miclescu, deported to terror camps at the age of eight, said “I am here not just for myself, but for all the Roma who suffered during the Holocaust and did not have the chance to be heard.” He finished with a hope that the younger generation would “build a world without racism.” Survivor Marianne Muller urged the world to recognize that Antisemitism is again on the rise and to remember that the Holocaust “happened only 80 years ago.” She survived because her mother took a chance on a stranger, telling her daughter to always “look for the kind eyes.”

Remembering the victims and survivors of the Holocaust is an incredibly important task, and as the survivors fade from view, the world must preserve their incredible and heartbreaking stories so those in the future can also hear them and learn from them.