The world marks 80 years since the liberation of the Nazi extermination camps and the end of World War II. But one question remains: did we truly defeat evil? The Nazis may have been vanquished, but the same blind hatred that fueled the flames of the crematoria has not disappeared. It merely changed form.
This year, 80 Holocaust survivors from Israel and around the world - many of them in their 90s - will participate in the March of the Living. They are the final living witnesses to the horrors of the camps, of hunger, humiliation, and mass murder. They carry the last flickering embers of memory, the final voice passing the torch of remembrance to the next generation. As time marches on, so do they - toward disappearance. And when that voice is gone, so too is the warning. Are we prepared for a world in which no one can still say, "I was there"?
This is not merely a historical question - it is an existential one. Antisemitism hasn't vanished. It has migrated, from the streets to social media. It no longer spreads through radio broadcasts and posters but through posts and comments on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. Once, Jews were hated for who they were. Today, we are hated for what we represent. The hatred no longer wears a yellow star, it flies the Israeli flag. Jewish students are assaulted, universities boycott Israel, antisemitic posters appear in major cities around the world. The poison rises and spreads.
We are standing at a critical crossroads: education or extinction. The fight for remembrance is not ceremonial, it is a battle for values, identity, and our future. Combating antisemitism is not just a Jewish cause, but a test of humanity's universal values. When the memory of the Holocaust fades to the margins, so too do its lessons. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. In 2025, in an era of accessible information, lies spread faster than ever, and ignorance has become a weapon. "Never again" is increasingly replaced by "Maybe it never happened."
The fight to remember is a moral imperative. Holocaust education is a lesson in humanity, a call to recognize our shared responsibility. To combat hatred, education must begin in kindergarten, instilling the values of tolerance in schools and ensuring universities do not become hubs of incitement. A school system that teaches history, the terrible cost of indifference, and the values of democracy and mutual respect is the only way to ensure that future generations do not repeat the mistakes of the past.
This is the defining battle of our generation - It begins in the classroom, continues at home, and demands global action to build a better future. Only then, perhaps, can hatred give way to hope.
Dr. Shmuel Rosenman is the co-founder and chairman of the International March of the Living, an immersive Holocaust education experience that brings individuals from around the world to Poland to explore the roots of prejudice, intolerance and hatred.
