In January of 2017, the World Jewish Congress (WJC) launched their international campaign #WeRemember. They urged people around the world to photograph themselves holding a sign with the text “We Remember” and post to social media sites. The WJC wanted to raise awareness about the Holocaust on an international level. The response was immediate and overwhelming. Photos of some of the posts were shown on a screen outside Crematorium 2 at Auschwitz to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, 2017.
Now in its third year, the campaign urges people around the world to photograph themselves holding a #WeRemember sign and post it to social media in an effort to combat antisemitism and all forms of hatred, genocide and xenophobia. Taking place in 50 countries and 20 languages in partnership with UNESCO and other organizations, the campaign reached more than 650 million people last year – more than one out of 11 people worldwide. But the work is not over, far from it!
WJC President Ronald Lauder said:
“With levels of antisemitism, xenophobia and Holocaust-denial rampant and rising across the world, it is imperative that the memory of the Holocaust be shared more widely than ever, to ensure that the atrocities we witnessed just seven decades ago never repeat themselves.”
“A concerning report by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) last month found that nine out of 10 European Jews said they believed antisemitism was getting worse, and a shocking CNN poll released shortly before that found that more than one-third of Europeans know little to nothing about the Holocaust. With fewer survivors among us, it is the responsibility of the next generation to keep their stories and memories alive. Together, we must remember the past to protect our future for generations to come.”
The Greenspon Center is participating in the #WeRemember Campaign this year and we urge anyone interested to join us.
We will also hold a very special global screening event of the new film “Who Will Write Our History” on January 27, 2019.
The story is that of the last days of the Warsaw Ghetto, during which a group of journalists and writers put pen to paper to tell the world what happened there. They buried these documents in milk cans, hoping they would be discovered after the tragedy of Nazism had passed. The film tells their story. For more information, click here