Claims Conference

They endured the atrocities of the Holocaust in their youth and were forced to rebuild their lives. The data found in the Claims Conference's "Holocaust Survivors Global Data and Statistics 2026" forces us to accept the reality that Holocaust survivors won’t be with us forever – now is the time to double our attention on this population. Now is when they need us the most. #PartnersInCare #HolocaustSurvivors

Uri Hirsch was born in Hamburg before WWII. His father was sent to a concentration camp and released only if the family left Germany. They fled in 1939, later reaching the U.S. in 1943 with help from Eleanor Roosevelt. Thousands of Jewish families were forced to flee Nazi Germany before the war. Uri now shares his story. Invite a Survivor Speaker. #VanishingWitnesses #HolocaustEducation #SurvivorSpeakersBureau

Join us tonight for the book launch and discussion - OLDER JEWS AND THE HOLOCAUST lbi.org/public-programs @cjewishhistory @lbinyc #HolocaustEducation #EducationAllies

The winning design of "Shaping Memory" - The official poster marking #YomHashoah 2026 has been announced. The image in Yoav Kahana's poster depicts the "absence" within the "presence"; the personal and collective rupture to the Jewish people engendered by the Holocaust. This rupture accompanied the survivors as they searched for living relatives and were met with an aching void. Learn more: bit.ly/4lDfwjC

After surviving, they had children but carried the pain of the family they had lost. Agnes and Miriam Lindenblatt never knew what it was like to have grandparents. They were born shortly after World War II to Holocaust survivors; their father, Vilmos Farkas, born on August 20, 1906, in Derecske, Hungary, and their mother, Terez Farkas née Weisz, born on November 25, 1919, in Napkor, Hungary. Vilmos, who passed away in 2006, and Terez, who passed away in 2009, lost many members of their immediate family during the Holocaust. In this emotional video, Agnes and Miriam recall their family’s history, including the murder of an uncle who the SS strangled with his own tefillin (two small leather boxes attached to leather straps, each containing four sections of the Torah inscribed on parchment, that are worn during morning services except on Shabbat or major holidays) after being caught praying. The sisters also share what it was like to grow up in a household with parents who had experienced persecution (Terez, Auschwitz, and forced labor; Vilmos, four years of forced labor) and the loss of their parents, siblings, uncles and aunts, and cousins in the Holocaust. The Claims Conference is grateful to Agnes and Terez, who we filmed three years ago on March 19, 2023, while we were recording their husbands, Robert and Yehuda z’ll Lindenblatt, and their brother Charles, all three Holocaust survivors from Hungary. The courage they displayed by telling their story helps us never forget the horrors of the Holocaust and how those horrors are passed down to generations. 82 years ago, the Germans entered Hungary. Within the next year, Germans and their Hungarian collaborators would murder about 500,000 Jews from Hungary. From the @ushmm: In March 1944, Nazi Germany decided to occupy their ally, Hungary, for military reasons related to Hungary’s role in the ongoing war effort. On March 19, 1944, the German military entered Hungary relatively unopposed. The Hungarians quickly complied with German demands. As a result, most German troops remained in Hungary for only a short period of time. The Germans, however, continued to play a dominant role in Hungarian politics. The German occupation authorities permitted Horthy to remain in his position as regent of Hungary. Many other Hungarian officials also kept their positions. But the Germans insisted that Horthy replace Prime Minister Kállay with the pro-German Döme Sztójay. As prime minister, Sztójay cooperated with the German authorities. Several radical right-wing antisemites received important positions in his government. One of Nazi Germany’s goals after occupying Hungary was to carry out the deportation and mass murder of Jews from the country. In March 1944, between 760,000 and 780,000 Jews were living in Hungary. This was the largest Jewish population still alive in Europe. The German occupation of Hungary was an important turning point. #RememberThis youtu.be/yPsLuCIdD2k

„Man muss den anderen akzeptieren“, sagte Judith Elkán-Hervé einen Tag nach ihrem 100. Geburtstag als sie in Paris den Orden der Ritterin der Ehrenlegion empfing. „Das ist die Botschaft, die ich jungen Menschen weitergeben möchte.“ » Das Zeugnis von Judith inspiriert die jungen Generationen. Die höchste Auszeichnung des französischen Staates wurde ihr von Agnès Troublé überreicht, der Gründerin des berühmten Modehauses @agnesb_officiel. 1/2

“Every Holocaust survivor’s story is a love story; the love of life, family and freedom.” — Andy Réti Andy was just two when his family was forced into the Budapest ghetto. Nearly 70,000 Jews were confined there before liberation in January 1945. He now shares his story so this history is not forgotten. Invite a Survivor Speaker. #VanishingWitnesses #HolocaustEducation #SurvivorSpeakersBureau

Often the first to be murdered and the least likely to survive persecution, how did older German and Austrian Jews experience the Holocaust? What do we know about care for aging survivors immediately following the Shoah? How has this history informed the efforts of the Claims Conference on behalf of Holocaust survivors over the years? Join us on Thursday, March 19th, from 5 pm to 6:30 pm ET for the launch of “Older Jews and the Holocaust: Persecution, Displacement, and Survival” and a discussion with the book’s editors and contributors about the experiences of German and Austrian older adults during and after the Holocaust. The event will be hosted by the Leo Baeck Institute at the Center for Jewish History, New York, NY, and cosponsored by the Ernst Hecht Charitable Foundation, the Wiener Holocaust Library and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Find more information here: lbi.org/public-programs @cjewishhistory @ushmm

March 23 at the New Orleans French Film Festival: You are invited to a special free screening of THE MOST PRECIOUS OF CARGOES presented in partnership with @filmindependent's Always Remember initiative. Always Remember is a series of free screenings, supported by the Claims Conference and the Cayton-Goldrich Family Foundation. The initiative raises Holocaust awareness through powerful, accessible storytelling and amplifies diverse voices and lived experiences connected to the Holocaust. THE MOST PRECIOUS OF CARGOES, directed by Michel Hazanavicius: One day, when the poor woodcutter watched one of these trains she thought was a freight train pass by, a package was ejected from it and fell into the snow. Like a gift from heaven, this little cargo turned out to be the one she had been waiting for - a child. The poor woodcutter decided, despite the danger she faced, to become its mother; despite her husband, who refuses to take care of this progeny from the cursed people; despite the laws, which mean that she should give this child to the authorities; despite the others, who even refuse to see a child there; and finally; despite death, which will be the price to pay, to save the life of this most precious of cargoes. Opposing the force of life to the industry of death, Grumberg’s tale succeeds in finding something beautiful to tell in what will forever remain a stain on the history of mankind. @NOFS #HolocaustEducation #AlwaysRemember

To mark the 88 years since the Anschluss, Holocaust survivor Hedi Argent shares her memories from that time in Austria. She remembers those days in March 1938 – they were days that changed her family’s lives. Her father lost his job, she was expelled from school, and, within a month, her family was thrown out of their home; they lost many of their possessions. Hedi’s family arrived in England in 1939, and after the war, they wrote to the Red Cross to try to find their extended family. Sadly, they discovered that 17 members had been murdered in the Holocaust. When she speaks to students, Hedi doesn’t want them to learn about the horrors of the Holocaust. Rather, she wants to tell them what led to the horrors of the Holocaust. Anschluss, from Yad Vashem: German word meaning connection or annexation that is used to refer to the takeover of Austria by Germany in March 1938. In German political jargon, the term Anschluss came into use at the end of World War I to denote the desire to include Austria in a united Greater Germany. However, based on the peace treaty made in 1919 between Austria and the allies who won the war, known as the Treaty of St. Germain, Austria was forbidden to unite with Germany, and instead was made into an independent country - the Republic of Austria. On March 13, 1938, German troops marched into Austria and declared the country a part of the German Reich. The Anschluss was supported by many Austrians, among them Austrian Nazis, who saw it as a political, social and cultural reunification with their brother country, Germany. On the other hand, the leaders of the West saw the Anschluss as an invasion, pure and simple. Despite this, not one government made a move to stop Hitler, who, without interference, felt free to embark upon the next step in his scheme to conquer all of Europe. #RememberThis #Anschluss

#FiPresents is introducing Always Remember on the Road, a series raising Holocaust awareness through cinema. First stop: New Orleans French Film Festival. Watch ‘The Most Precious of Cargoes’ and ‘Inked: Our Stories Remarked on MON, MAR 23. Free & open to all — tickets: bit.ly/4loF7wN In partnership with the Cayton Goldrich Family Foundation and @ClaimsCon.

Claims Conference Saul Kagan Fellows in Advanced Shoah Studies conduct cutting-edge research. Dr. Daan De Leeuw from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam received an International Dachau Committee award for his dissertation on Dutch Jewish slave laborers during the Holocaust. #HolocaustEducation comiteinternationaldachau.com/en/954-stanisl…

Mazel Tov! to the Claims Conference-supported films showing at the 2026 Boca International Jewish Film Festival. “HOLD ON TO YOUR MUSIC – A MOTHER’S LEGACY” - March 8 (dir: Josh Aronson & Adam R. Wood, prod: Lee Cohen, Marius Hanganutiu, Alex Rotaru, Adam R. Wood, Wendy Fisher, Matthew Einstein) “THE SHOSHANI RIDDLE” - March 9 (dir/prod: Michael Grynszpan) “AMONG NEIGHBORS” - March 9 and March 22 (dir/prod: Yoav Potash, prod: Anita Friedman) “MY UNDERGROUND MOTHER” - March 14 (dir/prod: by Marisa Fox, prod: Deborah Shaffer, Kelly Sheehan) “LABORS OF LOVE: THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF HENRIETTA SZOLD” (dir/prod: Abby Ginzberg) - March 22 The full schedule and tickets are available at: jfilmboca2026.eventive.org/welcome Films bring the lessons and memory of the Holocaust to life. Recognizing their potential to reach large numbers at festivals and on movie and television screens and on streaming platforms, the Claims Conference provides film grants as part of our ongoing support for Holocaust research, education and documentation. #RememberThis #HolocaustEducation

#RememberThis: They demonstrated the courage to act; they chose empathy over apathy. "By passing on the dramatic choices Righteous Rescuers made without giving in to fear, we preserve a sacred space of humanity for young people to refer to when their time comes to choose" - Rüdiger Mahlo, Representative of the Claims Conference in Europe. #StrongerThanFear

“When the deportations started, my mother carried me in her arms, covering her Star of David so no one would see she was Jewish.” — Peter Mayer Born in northern Transylvania, Peter survived in hiding while his father was forced into Hungarian labor service. In 1944, over 130,000 Jews from the region were deported to Auschwitz in weeks. He now shares his story so it is never forgotten. Invite a Survivor Speaker. #VanishingWitnesses #HolocaustEducation #SurvivorSpeakersBureau

"The Greek government formally requested the collection’s restitution in 2024, and the World Jewish Restitution Organization [@WJRORestitution] coordinated with Greek and Polish authorities to facilitate it. Now, the objects are headed to the Jewish Museum of Greece in Athens" - @shiralibartov

Einen “Meilenstein in meinem langen Leben” nennt der 100 Jahre junge #Shoah-#Überlebende Leon Weintraub die Auszeichnung mit der Ehrendoktorwürde der Universitätsmedizin #Göttingen. 1946 nahm Weintraub dort das Studium der Humanmedizin auf. Zuvor hatte er das #Ghetto #Litzmannstadt, das Vernichtungslager #Auschwitz-#Birkenau, die KZs Groß-Rosen, Flossenbürg, einen Todesmarsch und das KZ Natzweiler-Struthof überlebt. Mazal tov, lieber Leon und HAG #Purim sameach x.com/jewishclaimsco…

In honor of Women's History Month, please join us for a special series on the courageous women who risked their lives to save Jewish people during the Holocaust

“In Romania, out of 350,000 people sent to Transnistria, only 50,000 survived. I was one of the lucky ones.” — Ben Walker Deported in 1941, Ben and his mother were the only survivors in their family. Tens of thousands perished in Romanian-run ghettos and camps. He now shares his story so the history is not forgotten. Invite a Survivor Speaker. #VanishingWitnesses #HolocaustEducation #SurvivorSpeakersBureau

Berlin, The Rosenstrasse Protest 🧵 1/n The Rosenstrasse protest, "Rose street" in Berlin took place during February & March 1943. This demonstration was initiated and sustained by the non-Jewish wives & relatives of Jewish men & mischlinge who had been arrested and targeted for