On this day 70 years ago, the Auschwitz concentration camps were liberated by Soviet troops and the United Nations has designated January 27th as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. An estimated 1.1 million people died at Auschwitz with 90% of them being Jews.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Day serves to honor the victims lost and to urge educational programs to be developed to prevent future genocide. Museums are built to educate the public and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City are great places to start. 1220 was honored to fabricate Daring to Resist: Jewish Defiance in the Holocaust in 2007 that told the stories of the Jewish people and their individual and collective acts of resistance to undermine the Nazis. The exhibition is no longer featured in the museum but it was an eye opening project and the stories we read are ones that everyone should hear.

I encourage you to visit this museum or any Jewish history museum to learn more about this important piece of our world’s history.