Holocaust Remembrance Day: Survivors’ grandchildren tell the stories they heard

Carolyn Siegel remembers her grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, telling her it would be the job of her generation to make sure the world never forgets the murder of 6 million Jewish people during World War II so that it never happens again.

What started as a promise to her grandfather became a nonprofit that tells the stories of Holocaust survivors as they were heard by their grandchildren, the last generation to hear survivor stories firsthand. The stories describe lives lost, but also lives rebuilt.

“The stories honor the experience of survivors during the Holocaust, and also celebrate the resilience with which they rebuilt their lives,” said Siegel, founder of If You Heard What I Heard.

Siegel started the nonprofit five years ago after a synagogue in her hometown Los Angeles was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. She thought of what her grandfather had said. But he was no longer alive to tell his story. So she started making videos of grandchildren of Holocaust survivors sharing what they heard from their grandparents.

“I kept thinking if more people today heard the stories about what grandparents like mine endured during the Holocaust, and how they rebuilt their lives afterward, we wouldn’t see so much hatred or indifference–people would be able to relate to their stories,” Siegel said.

There are 75 video stories so far and many more to be told. A new collection of videos is being released on Read Entire Article