6 Holocaust Survivors Who Reminded the World “Never Again”

The article profiles six Holocaust survivors who dedicated their lives to bearing witness and ensuring the atrocities of Nazi Germany were not forgotten. Simon Wiesenthal, born in 1908 in Galicia, survived Mauthausen and became a famed Nazi-hunter, uncovering Adolf Eichmann's hideout in Argentina and exposing Nazis in Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky's government. Primo Levi, an Italian chemist from Turin, survived Auschwitz due to his expertise and wrote memoirs including 'If This Is A Man' and 'The Periodic Table'; he died in 1987. Simone Veil, born in Nice in 1927, survived Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, later becoming a French politician who championed abortion rights and served as the first President of the European Parliament from 1979-1982. Theodor Meron, born in Kalisz in 1930, survived the Częstochowa Ghetto, became a legal advisor to Israel, warned against settlement building in 1967, helped draft the ICC's war crimes provisions in 1998, and served as a judge for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Éva Fahidi, born in Debrecen in 1925, survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald, wrote 'The Soul of Things', attended the trial of SS guard Oskar Gröning in 2015, and died in 2023. József Forgács, a Roma survivor born in Zalaegerszeg in 1935, survived Mauthausen, worked in construction and as a border guard, and spoke about the Porajmos after Hungary's communist rule ended.