Three Survivors Remember Auschwitz, 80 Years Later

As young teenagers, Ruth Cohen, Steven Fenves, and Irene Weiss were deported from their hometowns to Auschwitz-Birkenau. There, they were separated from family members before being subjected to forced labor and harrowing conditions. In Steven’s words, “life was learning to die.” More than 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz, of whom nearly one million were Jewish men, women, and children. In their first recorded conversation together, these three survivors, who volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, reflect on their time at Auschwitz so that we might learn from their experiences of the deadly consequences of unchecked hatred and antisemitism. Together, we can defend the truth of the Holocaust.