Auschwitz survivor warns of rising hatred on Holocaust Memorial Day
Auschwitz survivor Tova Friedman had hoped to mark Holocaust Memorial Day by taking her eight grandchildren to the site of the former Nazi death camp in Poland but the coronavirus pandemic prevented the trip.
At just six years old, she was instructed by her mother to lie absolutely still in a bed at a camp hospital, next to the body of a young woman who had just died. As German forces went from bed to bed shootinganyone still alive, she barely breathed under a blanket and went unnoticed.
Days later, on january 27,1945, she was among the thousands of prisoners who survived to greet the Soviet troops who liberated the camp.
Now 82, Ms Friedman had hoped to mark Wednesday's anniversary by travelling to the Auschwitz-birkenau memorial site, which is under the custodianship of the Polish state. Instead, she will be alone at home in Highland Park, New Jersey, in the US.
However, her message warning about the rise of hatred will be part of a virtual observance organised by the World Jewish Congress.
Across Europe, the victims were remembered and honoured in various ways.
In Austria and Slovakia, hundreds of survivors were offered their first doses of a vaccine against corona virus in a gesture both symbolic and truly life saving given the threat of the virus to older adults. In Israel, some 900 Holocaust survivors died from Covid-19 out of the 5,300 who were infected last year, the country' s central bureau of statistics reported.
Pope Francis warned from the Vatican that distorted ideologies can "end up destroying a people and humanity".
Meanwhile, Luxembourg signed a deal agreeing to pay reparations and to give back looted art to Holocaust survivors.
Other institutions around the world, including th ea uschwitzbir ken au memorial museum in poland,yadva she min israel and the united states holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC also have online events planned.
The presidents of Israel, Germanyand poland will be among those delivering messages of remembrance and warning.
The online nature of this year' s commemorations is a sharp contrast to how Ms Friedman spent the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation last year, when she gathered under a huge tent with other survivors and dozens of european leaders at the site of the former camp.
It was one of the last large international gatherings before the pandemic forced the cancellation of most large gatherings.
Many Holocaust survivors in the US, Israel and elsewhere find themselves in a state of previously unimaginable isolation due to the pandemic. Ms Friedman lost her husband last March and said she feels acutely alone now.
But survivors like her also have found new connections over Zoom: World Jewish Congress leader Ronald Lauder has organised video meetings for survivors and their children and grandchildren during the pandemic.
More than 1.1 million people were murdered by the German Nazis and their henchmen at Auschwitz, the most notorious site in a network of camps and ghettos aimed at the destruction of Europe's Jews.