Holocaust survivors across the globe delivered stark warnings about rising hatred and violence during International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremonies on Tuesday, as they marked the 81st anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation.

Survivors Sound the Alarm

At Auschwitz in Poland, 96-year-old survivor Bernard Offen told gathered officials he sees troubling signs in today’s world. “I see hatred resurgent. I see violence beginning to be justified once again,” Offen warned participants, including Polish President Karol Nawrocki. “I see people who believe their anger is more valuable than another human life.” The ceremony concluded with Jewish and Christian clergy offering prayers at the site where Nazi forces killed 1.1 million people, most of them Jews.

In Britain, 95-year-old Mala Tribich made history by addressing the Cabinet, bringing government members to tears as she recounted surviving multiple concentration camps after losing her parents and sister. “Soon, there will be no eyewitnesses left,” she told Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s team. “That is why I ask you today not just to listen, but to become my witness.” King Charles and Queen Camilla hosted a separate reception for survivors.

Remembrance Ceremonies Worldwide

Italian President Sergio Mattarella gathered with survivors in Rome, acknowledging his country’s complicity in fascist-era racial laws that persecuted Italian Jews. He described the Nazi attempt to eliminate European Jews as emblematic of “all the evil that human beings are capable of committing when they allow themselves to be infected by the virus of hatred, racism, and oppression.” In Berlin, candles burned at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, featuring 2,700 concrete slabs honoring the six million Holocaust victims.

I’m not being hyperbolic when I say it is Holocaust denial to erase the 5 million other victims like Romani people, LGBT people, and disabled people https://t.co/mqjfmGyXP9

— naomi (@lachancenaomi27) January 28, 2026

Dwindling Community of Witnesses

The global community of Holocaust survivors continues shrinking, with approximately 196,600 still alive worldwide, according to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. This represents a decrease from 220,000 survivors just one year ago. Their median age stands at 87 years old, with 97 percent classified as “child survivors” born in 1928 or later. Despite decades of silence, some survivors are sharing their stories publicly for the first time, emphasizing the urgency of preserving testimonies before all eyewitnesses are gone.