Greater Miami Jewish Federation Holds Holocaust Remembrance Day Event
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – It's Holocaust Remembrance Day, making the 75th year since the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated.
Earlier in the day, a large ceremony was held just outside the gates of Auschwitz in Poland.
More than 1.1 million people, most of them Jewish were murdered or died there waiting to be killed.
During his remarks, the president of Poland said the truth about the Holocaust and the memory of Auschwitz cannot die.
Other observances were held around the world, including one in Downtown Miami by the Greater Miami Jewish Federation.
CBS4's Hank Tester spoke to survivor Frank Mulbaurez about liberation day.
"At that point I was 95 percent dead… but I could not celebrate because I was laying on the ground," said Mulbaurez.
For those gathering at the event, they worry the Holocaust internment camp liberation story is a faded memory or no memory at all.
They are also concerned anti-Semitism is on the rise, especially in Europe, which they say shows the lessons of the Holocaust are being lost.
The well-attended event addressed increasing anti-Semitism and the efforts to protect and educate individuals and Jewish institutions about hatred-driven, violent attacks.
"People thought, certainly after WWII, that overt anti-Semitism was finished, it was over. But we are discovering that's not the case," said Dr. Deborah Lipstadt from Emory University. "We are seeing it today from the right. We are seeing it from the political left. We are seeing it from Islamic extremists. It's sort of a perfect storm of hatred that has emerged in a way that no one really anticipated."
Scholars and activists Tester spoke with said this current period in time feels very much like the 1930s when anti-Semitism was a major concern.