Leaders at the Holocaust Awareness Museum and Education Center in Elkins Park timed a compelling, historical call to action to a recent anniversary in world history. Hadas Kuznits covered the messaging for KYW Newsradio.

The museum highlighted its “Don’t Forget” mission on Jan. 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The 2023 commemoration marked the 78th anniversary of the liberation of one of the most notorious camps of World War II, Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Poland site alone took 1.1 million lives, 18 percent of the total loss of six million Jews.

“If you were taken to an extermination camp specifically like Auschwitz, and you were below a certain age, you were automatically exterminated,” said Chuck Feldman, president of the Holocaust Awareness Museum.

His organization helps Holocaust survivors tell first-person, eyewitness accounts to younger generations through various events and museum tours.

One regular speaker is Fred Behrend, age 96. “Jews were dragged out of their stores and out of their homes … . They were beaten with clubs. They fell on the street,” he said, describing one of many eradication campaigns.

Feldman indicated the importance of these accounts being passed down, especially as the years pass.

“If you do the math, these [camp survivors] are people who … are in their mid-90s or older,” he said.

More on the Holocaust Awareness Museum is at KYW Newsradio.

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This video project, which helped raise funds for the Elkins Park Holocaust Museum and Education Center,
comprises first-person accounts of the horrors of World War II in Europe.