The number of Holocaust survivors is dwindling, creating urgency to efforts to make sure the memories don’t disappear for future generations. Already, the level of disbelief that the Holocaust ever happened is disturbing. One such Dachau survivor, Ben Lesser, has established an internationally known Holocaust Remembrance Foundation and has made available a treasure trove of Holocaust related coursework appropriate for various school grades.
Holocaust Survivors
It’s impossible to determine how many Holocaust survivors are still alive since no official counts have been made, and there are several categories. Some survived concentration camps, while others were able to escape and flee their homes without being captured.
In addition, although Jewish people were the main target population for extermination, the Nazis persecuted and imprisoned other groups as well including homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, disabled individuals, and Roma and Sinti populations.
Age Considerations
The average age of a Dachau survivor today is about 85, according to a report from
The Times of Israel in 2022. The youngest concentration camp survivors were born there. They would be in their 70s at the youngest, as Dachau and other Nazi prisons were liberated in 1944 and 1945.
Auschwitz and Dachau
Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp built by the Nazis, but Dachau was the first. The Nazis originally intended Dachau to be a camp for political prisoners and other groups of people Hitler deemed “subversive.” Later, however, it was converted to a death camp where more than 30,000 Jewish people were executed or died from other unnatural causes. Hundreds of thousands of prisoners died at Auschwitz and in the Holocaust more broadly, millions.
Further information about these topics can be found at the ZACHOR Holocaust Remembrance Foundation website, www.zachorfoundation.org
