April 14, 2026
STAY INFORMED – TALKING POINTS – ACTIONS TO CONSIDER – STORIES
April 14: Holocaust & Heroism Remembrance Day
The living survivors and liberators to the Holocaust – one of history’s greatest crimes against humanity – are passing away, silencing the few voices left to tell first-hand accounts. Their testimonies have shaped how the world understands the Holocaust and the consequences of unchecked hatred. Remembering the Holocaust serves to not only preserve history, but to prevent truth from being erased. As survivors become fewer in number, the responsibility to carry their stories belongs to all of us – to remember not only what was lost, but the strength and resilience that endured, and to ensure those lessons are not forgotten.
The Memory Gap: Fewer Witnesses, More Lies
Jews worldwide mark Yom HaShoah – Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day – on April 14, commemorating the Nazi annihilation of 6 million Jews and the Jewish resistance. At a recent Yom HaShoah remembrance event in NYC, survivor Fred Schoenfeld spoke not only for himself, but as “someone who carries the memory of many who are no longer here to speak.”
Memory is at the heart of Jewish life – not as distant history, but as something lived, retold and passed from generation to generation. Around 220,000 Holocaust survivors remain worldwide, most in their late 80s and 90s. Last year, 82-year-old Holocaust survivor Karen Diamond was murdered in a firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado. The memory she carried died with her.
The dwindling number of survivors coincides with a decrease in Holocaust knowledge. The American, British and other allied soldiers who liberated concentration camps came face to face with the horrors of what the Nazis perpetrated – their testimonies echoing the accounts of survivors.
A staggering 26% of American Millennials believe the Nazis murdered only 100,000 Jews in the Holocaust, according to a 2018 survey by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. A majority of Americans are unaware that the Nazis targeted other marginalized groups described as sub-human, including gay people, individuals with disabilities and the Roma – highlighting how preserving Holocaust memory is a responsibility for society as a whole.
Distortion, Denial and Inversion: Three Weapons of Holocaust Liars
With each passing year, firsthand testimony becomes increasingly rare – and into that vacuum, distorters and deniers are moving fast. Holocaust memory is being attacked through a clear playbook: minimizing, relativizing or selectively omitting what happened. Popular far-right political commentators Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson have promoted Holocaust denial.
Holocaust inversion recasts Jews and Israelis as the perpetrators of Nazi crimes – a tactic embraced by Iran, whose state media routinely promotes Holocaust denial while calling Israel a “Nazi state.” Far-left influencer Hasan Piker – increasingly embraced by major Democratic politicians – has called Israeli soccer fans “Judeo-Nazis,” praised Hamas terrorists and declared that the U.S. “deserved 9/11.”
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism provides a widely adopted framework. It provides a practical tool to recognize how antisemitism appears in both traditional and contemporary forms – including when it is masked as legitimate criticism of Israel. The IHRA definition has been adopted or endorsed by dozens of countries and hundreds of institutions worldwide.
Violence Starts with Words
The Holocaust did not begin with ghettos or concentration camps – it began with words, exclusion and the normalization of hatred. Long before mass violence, Jews were labeled, isolated and dehumanized, as their rights were steadily stripped away. The Nazi German government legislated that exclusion into law, stripping Jews of their citizenship, livelihoods and basic protections.
Between rhetoric and violence, antisemitism often becomes embedded in systems – through discrimination in schools, workplaces and public institutions – reinforcing the same patterns that historically enabled persecution to escalate. The Anti-Defamation League’s Pyramid of Hate illustrates how bias and discrimination can escalate into violence and genocide.
The Tel Aviv Univ. Antisemitism Worldwide Report for 2025 found that the number of Jews killed in antisemitic attacks in the Jewish diaspora reached its highest level in three decades.
Terrorists carried out four lethal attacks across three continents in 2025, including:
Physical assaults, synagogue bombings and vandalism against Jewish businesses have become increasingly routine. Recent attacks include:
After the Holocaust: Resilience, Rebuilding and the Right to Fight Back
In the decades following the Holocaust, Jewish communities around the world rebuilt synagogues, schools and cultural institutions. Jews have made major contributions in fields ranging from science and medicine to law, business and the arts. However, the global Jewish population has still not recovered to the pre-Holocaust level of 16.6 million.
While Israel is at war, Jewish communities worldwide are fighting back – in courtrooms, in legislatures and in the public square. Many Jews are also choosing to move to Israel – not out of fear, but out of conviction.
The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 created – for the first time in nearly two millennia – a sovereign Jewish nation with the capacity for political self-determination and organized defense. This reality is not separate from the Holocaust but rather is shaped by its lessons and consequences.
Despite nearly constant attacks and multiple wars over 78 years, the Jewish people have a home again where they are welcome. That safety relies on Israel’s citizens to defend their ancestral homeland.
Holocaust remembrance transcends reflection – it demands action. As memory fades and distortion grows, the responsibility to preserve truth and pass it down to the next generation becomes more urgent:
Stories Impacting American Jews
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This content is developed by The Focus Project in partnership with MERCAZ USA. The Focus Project distributes weekly news and talking points on timely issues concerning Israel and the Jewish people, including antisemitism, anti-Zionism and the delegitimization of Israel. It represents a consensus view across a spectrum of major American Jewish organizations. MERCAZ USA recognizes and respects the diversity of views on these issues among its readers and the community at large.