NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Many across the globe and in South Florida are remembering the lives lost during the Holocaust on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
This year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day happens as hostages are being released as part of the ceasefire deal with Israel and Hamas.
On Monday night, 94-year-old Saul Blau said he remembers the Holocaust like it was yesterday.
“I was separated from my family. My mother and father went straight to the gas chambers and I happened to be wound up within the living,” he said.
Blau and other survivors gathered together at Beth Torah Benny Rok Campus in North Miami Beach.
“I wasn’t supposed to be here,” said 88-year-old Rodi Glass.
“We’re not going to have Holocaust survivors for too long so we need to take advantage to learn from them and to teach our newer generation what happened,” said event organizer and Yad Vashem USA Foundation South Florida Chair Judith Osers Muller.
As this day of remembrance is marked worldwide, tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians continue to make their way back to what’s left of Gaza.
The ceasefire deal almost came undone over the weekend, but it’s still holding, as more hostages from Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack over a year ago are set to be released later this week.