1948 u.s. army film "neuremburg." >> hosted a commemorative ceremony to mark holocaust international remembrance day observed every 27th during world war ii. among the speakers are two survivors who offered their memories and a prayer. >> good morning. my name is lisa lef. and on behalf of the museum leadership, i want to welcome the many ambassadors, diplomats, representatives from the u.s. state department, other u.s. government agencies, members of our holocaust memorial council, and national jewish organizations.

most importantly, i want to give a special, warm welcome to the many holocaust survivors who are with us today. it is in their honor, and in memory of the victims, that we are dedicated to making the world a better place for ourselves and for future generations. this event commemorating international holocaust remembrance day is being streamed live. so i also want to welcome those watching from across the united states and across the world. wherever you may be, we hope you will share your reflections of the day on social media. and tag the museum using the hashtag we remember. in 2005, the united nations established this day to honor the memory of the victims of the holocaust. to educate ourselves about that history. and to draw from it lessons so that we may prevent future

genocides. today, we mark the 75th anniversary of the day that the soviet army liberated auschwitz-birkenau. more than 1.1 million people were murdered there. most of them jews. millions more were murdered in other nazi death camps. many others were killed in their own villages or in forests nearby. millions of non-jews were also persecuted and killed by the nazis and their collaborators, and we remember all of them. all around the world, many governments, many u.n. offices, are remembering the victims of the holocaust. the director of our museum, sarah bloomfield, is not here with us because she's in poland where she will join world leaders at a commemoration on monday at the site of auschwitz-birkenau. let me say a word about the u.n.'s choice of today as our day to remember this tragedy.

choosing the day on which soviet troops liberated auschwitz as our day of remembrance would seem to lend itself to a particular type of commemoration. one that would focus about the .

and, in fact, that day, my life began to change.

my town became part of hungary. and now, boys and girls. my father's business was taken away immediately. and our nanny had to leave because she was no longer allowed to work for a jewish family. shortly after, we learned that members of my mother's family had been taken and murdered. my family, officially, went into mourning. in march, 1944, hitler marched into hungary. our school was closed, and we had to wear yellow stars. by mid-april, we were forced to move into a ghetto. within days, our move -- within days of our morve, mr. zelco, a man who had previously tried to buy our house, was allowed to just go in and empty it of all

its content. in mid-may, all jews were marched to the bread factory where the railway was lined with cattle cars. we were ordered into the cars. my 83-year-old grandmother , ina wheelchair, was taken onto special car. that was the last time i saw her. my biology teacher, whom i admired and adored, refused to climb the steps and was shot in front of everyone. and left there, for all of us to see. it was horrific. my next memory is entering the bare ra barrack in auschwitz, where i spent the next six to seven months. my sister's friend, miriam lightner was our sister. she informed us that our mother, brother, and little cousins who had come with us had already

been murdered. who could believe something so outrageous? but it was true. miriam helped me get a job as a messenger girl. and my sister became her assistant. when i had fever, people i had met as a messenger saved my life by hiding me when the nazis came to the infirmary to conduct selections. sometimes, in july, we got a message to be at a specific place where we might see our father. we went, saw him carrying blankets. we called out and waved to each other, and left with joy. a few weeks later, we received a message from our uncle elish who had come to auschwitz. we were to meet him at 4:00 at a spot near the barbed wire fence. we met him that day and on

several more days. he informed us that, soon, he would be taken to the gas chambers. indeed, in a few days, a friend of his came to our meeting spot and told us. i'm sorry. that our uncle had been killed. there are no words to adequately describe the horror of that moment. at the end of october, 500 women, including my sister and i, were taken to nuremburg to work at a seaman's plant. i was in great deal of pain and was unable to work. shortly after, the factory was bombed and we were sent to another camp and another

seaman's factory. due to my back pain, i couldn't work anymore and just stayed in my bed. two days before the end of the war, we were in our barrack and suddenly saw a man running down the hill with open bayonets. it was a group of white russians. i remember our excitement and jumped on our beds to see the men running toward the camp. most of the jefgermans did not resist arrest by the partisans but one officer tried to flee on his motorbike. he was shot in front of us. some cheered. but most of us were shocked to see such cruelty. our humanity was still intact. the partisans invited everyone who wanted to come, to join them. those not leaving were told to stay in the camp to wait for the americans, who were close by.

20 women left with the partisans. several hours later, the jewish women came back to the camp. they had been told that jews were not welcomed by the protestants. anti-semitism was still alive and well. a month after liberation, my sister and i went back home where our dad was waiting for anyone who survived. what a glorious reunion that was. however, i was quite sick. six months later, i went to a hospital in bratislava where i spent a year being treated for tuberculosis of the spine, including nine months during which i was immobile. yet, how lucky i was again. most people died from that ailment. my father and sister now lived near prague and visited at least once a month. other survivors from the jewish community also visited me.

giving me renewed hope of human -- in humanity. a year after leaving the hospital, in april 1944, my dad and i arrived at the new york harbor on the first night of passover, which also was my 18th birthday. the statue of liberty was waiting to greet us. even now, when i pass lady liberty, i feel emotional. and acknowledge the strong need for always believing in her message of hope. the holocaust teaches us about human nature. that there is great capacity for good, as well as for evil. that when one group in a society is singled out for persecution, other groups are likely to be targeted, too. in small and large ways, each individual has the capacity to hurt or to heal, to savage or to

save. perhaps the most important lessons to note at today's 75th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz is that the holocaust did not begin with auschwitz, nor should it be solely defined by it. it began with words and small acts. then, infinitely larger ones that resulted in the murder of 6 million jews. for so many, auschwitz is a symbol of ultimate expression. and the ultimate expression of hatred and inhumanity. for me, it isn't the symbol. it was and is my reality. as i look around our world, i see groups like the rohingya and the uighurs being persecuted and subject to incarceration, violence, and even genocide. i am scared at the alarming rise

in anti-semitism and violent and deadly attacks on jews in the u.s. and elsewhere. it is appalling to see the stunning denial of the holocaust. and how the experience of the survivors and victims are being distorted in the very places where it happened. i am so disheartened and, sadly, convinced that we have not learned the lessons that this history, my history, teaches. i implore everyone, especially those in leadership positions, to be motivated by this history. use your authority and influence to push back against those who perpetrate the worst instincts in human behavior. do what you can to ensure that our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren don't face the same atrocities. we can do better. we must do better.

thank you. [ applause ] ♪

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good morning. my name is brett parson and i am a member of the metropolitan police department here in the nation's capital where i serve to lead our special liaison branch. and among my many duties, serve as the liaison to our jewish community here in washington, d.c. i am joined by my brothers in service to this nation. colonel kenneth williams and major roberto gomez of the u.s. army. all three of us have been participants in this museum's leadership program and training. and, in those programs, members of law enforcement, the judiciary, and the military, all organizations meant to protect our democratic institutions, examine the role that those professionals had during the holocaust. case studies are explored to

examine where individuals and whole professions made choices that resulted in complicity to commit a genocide. examining the history helps members, today, look at their own roles and responsibilities. it's hard to imagine the number of 6 million. but even harder to imagine that that number represents individuals, not just an individual number. because of that, we, today, remember those. those 6 million, as individuals, and as a group. so that they will not be lost to history. we remember them for their sake. but we also remember them for the sake of our own humanity.

sophie hess. julie von weinen. bertha friedman. the friedman family. the schwartz family. richard broda. david josephson. roy cohn. rachel degroot. sophia swab. meyer degroot. isaac gruber. sarah gruber. isaac rosenshine. jacob herzkowikz. agnus figel. clara and jacob wiznitzer and

their daughters roga, frieda, and rachel. serena matsa. annette davidon. gita freder. hermosa. esther -- rosa lazlo. miklosh liebermann. vera freelander. walter coaster. and ilsa harbrocht. >> aaron and hinda manel and

family. david and leah goldfarb and family. arpod grunwald. marcia anakovich. silva deutsch-bash. joseph rosenthal. regina rosenthal. sharon rosenthal-lichter. yohan israels. astrid israels. eddie gomperts. mena jablonski. felix levkowitz.

eva munzer. leah munzer. john nomik. ezer blakeman. ernst raskin. lesel raskin. malka winetrobe. hinda freed. gustov pick. andre cornhouser. avrun ponzak. david ponzak. monak pearlmooter. chesha wolfman.

>> faye epstein. hersh epstein. malta epstein. miriam epstein. sira merebalm. sammy merebalm. malga spitzer. mo wax. hanna wax. leah wax. rachel fried. joseph freid. ri rika besler. tony brunsville. sophie stein. richard stein. camilla stein-berganova. wagner stein.

leo roots. anna knoll. heinrich knoll. holda dreimer. perry. leah fogul. jacob wise. golda wise. hanna wise. esther wise. miriam wise. mo-sha wise. we would like to invite al munser, holocaust survivor and volunteer to lead the recitation of the kadish. >> we offer a kadish as a prayer of remembrance. but the words of the kadish

reaffirm our faith in a higher power. a power that endows us with the ability to learn from the past. and to choose good over evil. please, rise, if you are able. and please remain standing following the kadish for a moment of silence as we remember all victims of the holocaust and all victims of bigotry and hate. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> you may be seated. ♪

♪ >> i would now like to invite holocaust survivors to join

together with members of the diplomatic community, to light memorial candles. following them, we invite all our guests to light a candle. ♪

american history tv continues our commemoration of the world war ii holocaust. coming up, holocaust survivors on new findings about world war ii. that's followed by real america with the 1948 u.s. army film "nuremburg" about the first trial of nazi war criminals. >> new findings on the relationship between the brutality of the nazi regime and the german military campaigns were examined by holocaust scholars, as part of the national world war ii museum's annual conference. >> ladies and welcome back. we go from a dark topic to, probably, the darkest of all topics. but it also is led by some of the world's leading scholars. period. it is, of course, the holocaust.