Holocaust survivors, educators in the Maritimes reflect on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

First at Five talks to Holocaust survivor David Korn – on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Monday is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and a reminder of a dark chapter in history that claimed the lives of millions.

“It’s always important to remember the Holocaust and study the Holocaust,” said Mark David, Atlantic Jewish Council President.

“It’s not a monolithic event where just one thing happened,” said David. “The Holocaust was very different in Hungary than it was in France, then it was in Vichy France or in the Netherlands or even the Channel Islands.”

David said more needs to be done to understand the lessons of the Holocaust and combat rising antisemitism today.

“One of the famous phrases of the Holocaust is ‘never again’ and this should never happen again,” David said.

Jan. 27 is a date that brings back somber memories for David Korn, one of the remaining Holocaust survivors in the Maritimes.

“We are very lucky that my parents before they were taken to Auschwitz, they were able to put us in an orphanage, we were lucky because there were thousands of kids, parents wanted them to be in orphanage and I don’t know why they accept us,” said Korn.

Korn remembers the date he said goodbye to his parents: Oct. 22, 1941. He was five years old when they delivered him to the orphanage in Slovakia. He remained there with his six-year-old brother for two and a half years until his aunt and uncle found them and took them to France. They were the brother’s only relatives to survive the Holocaust.

When their uncle could not take care of them, he placed Korn and his brother in an orphanage in France for nine months before they were taken to Israel where they lived in an orphanage for six years.

“After high school I had to go to the army, and I was in different places and it was really hard,” said Korn.

Korn was a soldier in the Israeli army for two and a half years. After, he moved to Guelph, Ont., for his education.

It would be years before he found out what happened to his parents.

“Only 10 years ago did we learn that they were caught a week after putting us in the orphanage and taken to Auschwitz,” said Korn.

Korn’s parents died after 4 months in Auschwitz, along with approximately one million Jewish people.

“Nobody should have been through such a thing. Only by telling what happens hopefully it will prevent another Holocaust,” said Korn. “People should know what hate can produce.”

Marilyn Sinclair founded Liberation 75 in 2018 in advance of the 75th anniversary of the Jewish liberation from the Holocaust. The group is dedicated to improving Holocaust education across Canada.

“To ensure that the memory of the Holocaust does not recede from memory and that we keep it front and centre,” said Sinclair. “That we continue to remember the stories and the lessons of the Holocaust for all the years going forward,”

Sinclair said that 67 per cent of the students surveyed think that the Holocaust could happen again and 66 per cent reported seeing antisemitism “a lot or sometimes.”

David said members of the Atlantic Jewish Council have seen antisemitism rise since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.

“I don’t think anybody is scared and such, I think there is deep anxiety,” David said. “You can’t walk around, and you know wear a star of David or perhaps wear a Yamaoka skull cap on your head. You risk perhaps being challenged and called names and things like that. People don’t feel free in many ways to live an open Jewish life and that’s very sad.”

David said several buildings will be lit up across Canada Monday night in remembrance of those who lost their lives in the Holocaust, including the New Brunswick Legislature in Fredericton and Nova Scotia Legislature in Halifax.