In their name: perspectives on Holocaust remembrance
In 2005, the United Nations designated 27 January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. We spoke with Holocaust survivor Ivor Perl, Romanian delegate Alina Bricman, and Head of the Delegation of the Netherlands, Aaf Tiems, about why remembrance matters and what it means to them.
“When you are seven years old, you don’t ask yourself why there is only one Jewish school in the whole of Romania,” said Alina Bricman, Director of EU Affairs at B’nai B’rith International, reflecting on her childhood. “Over the years, you learn about the history of the Jewish people and the Holocaust, and you begin to understand.”
For Alina, this understanding evolved into activism. During her time as chair of the European Union of Jewish Students, she worked to ensure that young Jews could live openly and proudly. “There isn’t a Jewish student in Europe today whose grandparents or great-grandparents were not impacted by the Holocaust. That legacy creates a desire for justice.”
“There isn’t a Jewish student in Europe today whose grandparents or great-grandparents were not impacted by the Holocaust.”
Alina Bricman speaks at the IHRA plenary in Dubrovnik. Image credit: Karlo Sutalo
For Ivor Perl, the history of the Holocaust is painfully personal. Born in Makó, Hungary, Ivor was one of nine children in a devout Jewish family. In 1944, at the age of 12, he and his family were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Upon arrival, Ivor was separated from his parents and seven of his siblings. He and his older brother, Alec, were the only members of his family who survived.
After liberation, Ivor settled in the UK, where he had a family and a successful business. For five decades, Ivor remained silent. “I was 13 years old when I arrived in the UK. I didn’t want to look back, I wanted to live. I never spoke to my children about the Holocaust. I always wanted to keep the war and the horrors as far away from them as I could. I didn’t want to hurt them, and they didn’t want to hurt me by asking.”
"It’s not about forcing remembrance but inspiring it.”
This changed in 1995 when he was asked to share his story in front of an audience during a commemoration at his local synagogue. “That moment convinced me of the power of telling my story, especially to younger generations. I realized then that I couldn’t run away from the past anymore.”
The collective responsibility of Holocaust remembrance
“The Holocaust is about human rights, discrimination, democracy – everything we care about in our society,” says Head of Delegation Aaf Tiems, senior policy advisor at the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.
On 22 January, Aaf will join hundreds of volunteers, including IHRA Chair Lord Eric Pickles, in reading aloud the names of the more than 100,000 Jews, Sinti and Roma who passed through the Westerbork transit camp before being murdered in Auschwitz or Sobibor. Reading the victims’ names continues, uninterrupted, for six days and five nights.
“I feel emotional thinking about standing in that place and reading the names. Because the names are in alphabetical order, you realize that whole families were murdered. Among others, I will remember the Bachra family: Eliazer, Salomon, Jeanne Marianna and Simon. Speaking their names out loud is a way to show that they are not forgotten.”
Aaf Tiems speaks at the IHRA plenary in London. Image credit: Grainge Photography Ltd
Challenges to remembrance today
The act of commemorating is not without challenges. Rising antisemitism and the politicization of Holocaust memory threaten remembrance efforts. Against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, Alina has seen schools cancelling Holocaust commemorations. Survivors who have dedicated their lives to sharing their stories with school children have been told: ‘not this year.’
Ivor explained that the locations of commemorations are often withheld until shortly before the event due to security concerns and implored people to ensure that politics stays out of memorialization of the Holocaust. When he asks directly, “tell me, has the world learned anything at all? Can you prove to me that all the education, all the talking has made a difference?”, it is easy to understand the sense of hopelessness.
Alina expresses dismay at the instrumentalization of Holocaust memory: “Eighty years after the Holocaust, its memory is politicized, minimized, trivialized – often by people who have the responsibility to safeguard its memory.”
But anger, while painful, can be a source of strength. “Fury reminds us of the injustice, but it also pushes us to act. Forced labor, deportation, violence – this is not a family history that’s easy to process or to make peace with. It’s hard to imagine a form of justice that makes up for these realities, but the closest thing to that is governments and citizens acknowledging history, taking responsibility, and committing – in real ways – to ‘never again.’”
Sustaining hope
Despite the challenges, hope persists. Alina explains that over time awareness has grown that while the Holocaust is European history, it is local history, too.
“Now we are able to say: the Holocaust happened not only there, far away, in Auschwitz, a long time ago, but also here, on the streets of our city, in places we recognize from our daily lives. This is a development that the IHRA has contributed to significantly and it is powerful. This localization is something that’s being channeled into commemoration events.”
In the Netherlands, Aaf has watched commemoration grow from small ceremonies focused on rescue and resilience to national events televised across the country which highlight the specificities of the Holocaust.
“As the distance to the events of the war increases, there is a growing interest and confidence in society to ask and answer difficult questions about collaboration, about who knew what and when,” she explained. She also highlighted the work being done to make interfaith connections between Muslims, Jews, and Christians. “Globally, the situation is difficult, but locally, there are pockets of hope.”
Elie Wiesel said, “whoever listens to a witness becomes a witness.”
For Ivor, seeing younger generations take up the mantle of remembrance gives him solace. Last year, Ivor watched his granddaughter, Lia, speak about his experiences at a commemoration at the University of Sussex: “I was so proud of her,” he said. “My granddaughter’s interest in my story came from her. That’s important. It’s not about forcing remembrance but inspiring it.”
On 27 January Ivor will remember his family. His mother Rosa and his father Ference. His siblings David, Raizel, Mordechai, Bluma, Malka, Moshe, and his youngest sister, Faigale, who was four when she was murdered. And he will remember his brother Alec who died in 2003 – and without whom he says he would never have survived.
Among the fury and the fear, hope endures because it has to. Hope borne from the work of Aaf, Alina and Ivor – and the thousands of experts and policymakers working alongside them. The responsibility to continue to bear witness now rests with us.
(Featured image at the start of the page: Ivor (left) with his brother Alec. Photo courtesy of Ivor Perl.)
The IHRA concluded its Plenary meetings under the UK Presidency, held from 2 to 5 December 2024. With its theme “In Plain Sight,” the London Plenary reflected on the importance of Holocaust remembrance, education, and research in addressing contemporary challenges such as antisemitism, antigypsyism/anti-Roma discrimination, and Holocaust distortion.
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