Open Letter To American Leaders and Citizens From A Community Of Holocaust Survivors

May 28, 2021

AN OPEN LETTER TO AMERICAN LEADERS AND CITIZENS FROM A COMMUNITY OF SURVIVORS AT THE UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM

We are 51 Holocaust survivors who volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. We are proud Americans, eternally grateful to this great nation that became our home after the war and enabled us to live in freedom and rebuild our lives and families. Yet today, our solemn obligation to the memory of those who were murdered in the most destructive eruption of antisemitism the world has ever experienced compels us to write this open letter to our leaders and fellow citizens. 

We are seeing an alarming confluence of events that we never imagined we would witness in our adopted homeland. We cannot remain silent in the wake of the recent antisemitic attacks in cities and towns across the country. We know firsthand the danger of unchecked antisemitism. This targeted violence is happening as we also watch with great dismay a persistent and increasing tendency in American public life to invoke the Holocaust for the purpose of promoting another agenda. 

It is deeply painful for us to see our personal history—the systematic destruction of our families and communities and murder of six million Jewish men, women, and children—exploited in this way. What we survived should be remembered, studied, and learned from, but never misused. 

We thank those leaders in government and other sectors of American society, including business, academia, religious, and civic, who have forcefully rejected antisemitism and the misuse of the Holocaust in our national discourse. We call on all leaders and citizens to do the same.

Katie A., survivor from Austria

Ralph B., survivor from The Netherlands

Ruth C., survivor from Czechoslovakia

Frank C., survivor from Germany

Joan D., survivor from Poland

Ania D., survivor from Poland

Marcel D., survivor from Poland

Maria D., survivor from Poland

Ruth E., survivor from Poland

Arye E., survivor from Czechoslovakia

Peter F., survivor from Germany

Ninetta F., survivor from Greece

Steven F., survivor from Yugoslavia

Allan F., survivor from Poland

Gideon F., survivor from Czechoslovakia

Albert G., survivor from France

Agi G., survivor from Hungary

Peter G., survivor from Hungary

Rachel G., survivor from Poland

Sheldon G., survivor from Poland

Tamar H., survivor from Yugoslavia

Julie K., survivor from Poland

Mark K., survivor from Ukraine

Theodora K., survivor from Yugoslavia

Maryla K., survivor from Poland

Lisa K., survivor from Italy

Peter L., survivor from Germany

Estelle L., survivor from Poland

Louise L., survivor from The Netherlands

Frank L., survivor from Germany

Emanuel M., survivor from Latvia

Alfred M., survivor from The Netherlands

Joel N., survivor from France

Jill P., survivor from Germany

Kurt P., survivor from Germany

Halina P., survivor from Poland

George P., survivor from Hungary

Samuel P., survivor from Poland

Sylvia R., survivor from Poland

Rita R., survivor from Romania

George S., survivor from Hungary

Nat S., survivor from Romania

Alex S., survivor from France

Rose-Helene S., survivor from France

Esther S., survivor from Germany

Peter S., survivor from Czechoslovakia

Josie T., survivor from Belgium

Susan W., survivor from Germany

Henry W., survivor from Austria

Irene W., survivor from Czechoslovakia

Martin W., survivor from Czechoslovakia

Last names omitted for personal privacy