May 30, 2015 2 min read

We’re frequently reminded of the dwindling number of World War II veterans, and not without good reason – last June, when the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Europe was being commemorated, the Pew Research Center found only 1 million American veterans of World War II were still alive, out of 16 million who served. Some estimates have it that 1,000 veterans of the second world war die every day.

We were reminded last week of another cohort from that time who also are slipping from us at a quickening pace – Holocaust survivors who managed to endure the brutalities the Nazis meted out during World War II.

Although we were unable to find precise numbers on the ranks of still-living Holocaust survivors, news reports earlier this year about the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps in Poland pointed out that the number of survivors who came to commemorative events dropped precipitously from 2005, and most of the survivors who were there were in their 90s or even beyond.

Many excellent documentary films were made about the Holocaust, including the monumental, nine-hour “Shoah” from 1985. Many books were written and there are an abudance of oral histories that generation upon generation will be able to peruse. If you are visiting Washington, D.C., a stop at the United States Holocaust Memorial Musuem is recommended.

Still, there is something profoundly important about hearing from one of those survivors firsthand. Students at Canon-McMillan High School were offered that rare privilege last week when Moshe Baran, a 94-year-old native of Poland who now lives in Pittsburgh, recounted his experiences in a Jewish ghetto during World War II, and a harsh labor camp where he was forced to help build a railway.

“The able-bodied were separated from the group, and the women, children and elderly were placed onto trucks, taken to a barn and machine-gunned and set on fire,” Baran said.

Some lessons from high school fade with time – How many of us could pass a test on quadratic equations if we had to take one today? – but we hope the lessons Baran offered will not soon be forgotten.